Transcripts For CSPAN3 Minority Activism And The 1968 Electi

Coming up next on American History tv, a Panel Discusses minority activism leading up to the 1968 election. It is part of dr. Martin luther king jr. s poor peoples , africanamerican into condo activist came to washington, d. C. They explained how people of different races came together but it is largely remembered as an africanamerican movement. This event is part of the American Folklife Center at the library of congress to Mark National hispanic heritage month. This is about 80 minutes per to thank you so much, everybody. We are going to move on to our first panel discussion. I should say that my name is thee winick, a writer at American Folklife Center. We are presenting this symposium thetled organizing across boundaries, strategies and coalitions in the struggle for civil rights and social justice. This first presentation is called when poor people marched on washington, the 1968 campaign in black and brown. I will introduce the speakers, and then they can come up and begin the discussion. So, the first person i will introduce is gordon who is an assistant professor at George Washington university specializing in the history and the rhetoric of 20th century social Justice Movements and the africanamerican and latino experience in the united states, as well as oral history and history of film. His first book and focus of his Library Presentation is power to the poor, the fight for Economic Justice 1960 to 1974. It was published in 2013. So, we are really happy to have him here. He is the recipient of many awards, including the first ferrar civil t. Rights history award. And how is this going to work . Come on up and have a seat. Yeah. Our second speaker is going to be our second panelist is going ao be carlos montez, nationally recognized leader in this condo immigrants rights and antiwar movements who resides and works in east l. A. It was while attending college he joined the mexicanamerican Student Association and founded conneaut stu a chicano student group. We have an Academic Program coming out of that, which is wonderful. He tookd p part in founding various social movements, including the brown berets. He took part in the antiwar men and the free Newton Campaign and other campaigns during the 1960s. Heremained active organizing other social movementss. So carlos montez, if you would come on up as well. Finally, i will introduce our third panelist who is or our moderator who is the wonderful who work here at the American Folklife Center of the library of congress where is a senior specialist. He looks after our civil rights history project. So gupta. [applause] good morning. Vicki for coming out today on a rainy afternoon thank you for coming out on a rainy afternoon washington, d. C. Carlos forhank flying off from california to be here. Has been to believe it nine years since i first interviewed both of them for my book that came up 8 years later, back in 2005 when i first trekked out to california, new mexico, and colorado to speak with them and some other folks. Oral history became the core of the book. So, what i plan to do today is to briefly sketch out the story poor people marched on washington in what was dr. Martin luther kings final crusade. So, you may have noticed that we are in the season of civil rights anniversaries. As the opening introduction to the entire symposium today suggested that this is the last program of a season of programs that started off in the spring to commemorate freedom summer, the 50th anniversary of that in mississippi, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It is the 60th anniversary of the first brown decision from 1954. No commemoration has been, moment has been celebrated as much as the 1953 march on washington in d. C. Last august. Im not going to go into criti que and analysis of the original march, but what i will say is that i am struck at how much tht the march has overshadowed other marches, particularly the 1957 prayer pilgrimage a few years after the brown decision, as well as the 1968 Poor Peoples Campaign. I think this is a product of continued public memory a scholarship thatn emphasizes two 1960s. Early 1960s, the healthy on days of the civil rights struggle, and perhaps kennedy liberalism and a bad 1960s. A good and a bad 1960s of riots, white backlash, and for a lot, black power. Today i want to talk about the Poor Peoples Campaign, dr. King never saw. One i argue reveals the complexity of the man, the far more than the campaigns betterknown counterpart. Alarmed but what he saw as a vicious circle of state violence in the form of Police Brutality and harassment as military involvement in vietnam, and by rioters frustrated with the slow pace of civil rights reform in northern and western cities, dr. Was fearful that we were very quickly moving toward a fascist state. In december, 1957, king announced Poor Peoples Campaign, in which the southern Leadership Conference would bring ways of the nations poor to washington, d. C. , to redress their grievances by the government. Adding the poor would stay until america responds. He envisioned the campaign as not just one of black and White Rainbow coalition that included mexicanamericans, Puerto Ricans, and native americans. He hoped the campaign would do a number of things. One, transform fully the struggle for civil rights into human rights. Of course, many other people had been already doing that. One of the leading civil Rights Organizations, this was a considerable turn from what they had been doing earlier, including other people they had not worked with before. Bringing about the federal governments war on poverty which have been declared by president johnson and never fully fought or find it, at least partially because of the commitment to the war in vietnam. Restoring credibility of nonviolence and social justice organizing, which had armedround amid calls for selfdefense. Into theign blossomed most ambitious ever taken,ndertaken by sclc and dr. King and has been dismissed by journalists and even some activists as irrelevant or a ackastrous coda of the bl civil rights struggle. One former official called it the little bighorn of the Civil Rights Movement. It certainly was flawed. It did not achieve many of its goals. The closer look at the campaign reveals a remarkably instructive moment, an experiment to build a altiracial tow wage sustained fight against poverty. Representatives of so many different movements come together to build a physical and Spiritual Committee about justice and poverty that went beyond a oneday rally. Represented was the Southern Civil rights movement, labor unions, chicano and American Indian activist, the student movement, north south and west. What a Diverse Campaign reveals is how classbased Multiracial Coalition apologists often operate alongside black power and chicano power. They were not at odds. This is often times what the public memory suggest as well as historiography and scholarship, that these were always at odds. But in fact, i would argue they were mutually interdependent. The campaign also reveals how poor folks saw the property different league. Based on the different historical trajectories. s call for dr. King a different sort of campaign, it wasnt until march 19 68 that activist beyond traditional civil rights circles began to respond. In what was called the Minority Group conference, 80 eight to 80 activists gathered in atlanta. It was a moment that few people had ever heard of. Some of the most important leaders of the chicano movement. The Mexican American Political Association in california. The founders of the Mexican American Youth Organization in texas. And denvers crusade for justice were among the folks there. Their were welfare rights activists. There were coal miners Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia who were interested in environmental issues. Religious activists from the National Council of churches. Serviceamerican foreign activists from the quakers. They saw themselves as opponents of the vietnam war. Theassaw that as linked to abandonment of the war on poverty by 1968. Here king presented his vision. One that was not just about how defined poverty as jobs or income or a solution to poverty but one that included everyones ideas. Activists offered a familiar refrain about the burgeoning relationship between them and Civil Rights Activists, representing more urban chicanos reminded king that conferring is a twoway street. Reyes dominated the room in a Cap Committee defense of the land grant rights. Struggle. I also will not go into all the details of the land grant struggle but i will be happy to talk about that in q a. The delegates bonded over food, culture. The growing realization that they were stronger together than they were a part. And perhaps most importantly, that sclc took their issue seriously. So miles horton, the founder of the highlander folks school, fortraining or center civil rights and Union Organizing in tennessee wrote king after this conference. I believe caught a glimpse of the future and the making of a bottomup coalition. King was assassinated three weeks later, sparking violence in more than 100 cities including the district. The district being one of the most devastated by it. Ralph abernathy insisted the campaign would go on and support exploded as many people who had initially dismissed the campaign for a variety of reasons to provocative, social nonviolent protests was outmoded. For a variety of reasons. Many of them reconsidered. Black panthers who i talked with said, we wanted to go to washington as, in memory of dr. King. Even if they were still skeptical. In fact, the campaign was so flooded with volunteers, so flooded with financial support, t campaignh was overwhelmed. And speaking of this idea of ptsd, that is a good way of describing Ralph Abernathy and a young jesse jackson, the folks that were the close aides around king, the people who had been working with him for years trying to put this campaign on a month after dr. Kings death. So, this disorganization it starts to become apparent as marchers began to descend on washington through the nine caravans modeled after the 1965. Mery march in west,ame from the northwest, midwest, northeast, and of course the south. I hope in his comments that carlos might speak about his experience on the caravan from the west. I remember some interesting stories he told, some of which are in the book. Photographed of the caravans, however, was the mule train. A classic civil of southern poverty, sharecroppers, even black southern property. Poverty. What this did was inadvertently reinforced the notion that the campaign was one more black civil rights campaign, and not the multiracial campaign that scls and dr. King had thought. By having a reporter cover and ressow the mule train, the p reinforce the idea that this is really about southern poverty. Not about westerner midwesterner northeastern, Puerto Ricans and native americans. Upother symbol that ended distracting from the campaigns multiracial message was resurrection city. The plan was to have some sort of encampment in washington. Where marchers could stay and they could launch their campaign of federal agencies, of congress and the white house. So, they settled in a small tent city on the national mall. Now, its partly based on the army march of 1932. When world war i veterans came to d. C. To demand their bonus early, rather than getting it in 1945. Because they were desperate to have some kind of money at the depths of the great depression. They were burnt out by u. S. Soldiers led by douglas mcarthur. And sent back over the bridges into virginia. At it was seen by king aides successful and that it helped bring down hoover. It was one more way, one more poor optic for president already on the ropes, that he just did not care about poor people or care about regular folks and veterans. Its interesting if you go to be lbj library and spend time with the papers of aides to johnson, they were all reading arthur slussers history reading arthur solicitors Arthur Schlesingers history. So, resurrection city did take a own, take on a life of its and became a focal point of the campaign. By late may, the city had 2500 People Living in it. Described as a revival meeting within a carnival within an army camp. When people were not lobbying congress and federal agencies, they ate at the mess hall. They put themselves in a day care center. They got their hair cut. They listen to some of what was called the best entertainment in town from pete seager to diana ross and gladys knight. Residents wrote their own newspaper, criticizing sclc leadership. There was the poor Peoples University that offered a range of courses. Everything from mexican American History to the intimacies of income maintenance. There was also the many races soul center. But it was a rainy spring. I feel like again there was a lot of rain. As one of my, folks i spoke with for the book said, it rained like in the bible. 19 days out of 31 it poured. A wet spring here. It had to be evacuated twice. You can see what happened. Maybe the drainage has gotten better in west potomac park. Here are pictures of slightly happier times. Bers doing their job, one of the white families from West Virginia. Time most of the Mexican American and native american marchers arrived from the weset, which is several days after resurrection city had been started and they started pitching tents there, the city was a mess. Somee said with understatement, we did not see what we hope to see. For understandable reasons. Martin luther king had been assassinated. We figured, we wished them the best. Meanwhile, we have to get on with what we want to do. Who camemost chicanos to washington lived in the Hawthorne School, an Experimental High School that opened its doors to the marchers. At the time, their building was southwest the became part of Southeastern University to which went defunct a few years ago. The choice of hawthorne was critical. It was in this space that much of the campaigns Relationship Building for chicanos occurred. Several activist independently called it a successful multiracial community. Some of it was Cultural Exchange over food and music. Others describe their shock at fromoverty of poor whites appalachia to the point where th ey would give their extra shoes and jacetkkets to them. Chicano activists in their teens and 20s, and the age is in the poor peoples g, it forcedwed youn them to take a more sophisticated look at the world and consider how race, class, and gender were intertwined. Activists met folks they would not have otherwise met. And who got them thinking in different ways. One of my favorite quotes from carlos, ill give here. Huh . Lets see if i get it right. When would we have gotten together with the crusade for justice . Live with them, shared bread with them, marched every day with them. Their activities and washington bonded the activist together in such a way that they build on these relationships when they went home. Maybe mostrotest, interesting was nextdoorin front of the Supreme Court. In early june, 1968, where 400 african american, and mexicanamerican activists joined to protest a recent court ruling about native fishing rights. Was one ofs, this the key issues for a lot of native americans. Who had been supposedly given the right under treaties that were up to 20 years old to fish in ancestral waters0. State laws, including washington em from doing th this and they would be arrested. So, inspired by the direct action they saw on tv by the student nonviolent coordinating committee, they would fish in places they were not supposed to, be arrested, and put this challenge into the court system. The Supreme Court earlier that year had ruled that the state laws were indeed constitutional. They were not a violation of the treaties. And so, they showed up in june and protested in front of the court. This protested not change the ruling. The ruling would change later on in the early 1970s. Is highlightid do the potential of Coalition Building at the time. On on their way back to hawthorne, where most of them are based from the Supreme Court, the District Police attacked and beat a lot of the protesters. Maria showed that one photo of ernesto from that moment where they did not think the protesters were moving fast enough, and they attacked them. Several folks were jailed. And ernesto remembers about it years later, you find common cause when you sit in the same jail cell. And they were released, thanks to naacp bail money. They were greeted like h