ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Thousands of anti-poverty activists have launched a campaign in recent weeks modeled after Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign of 1968. Like the push 50 years ago, advocates are hoping to draw attention to those struggling with deep poverty from Appalachia to the Mississippi Delta, from the American Southwest to California’s farm country.
The latest effort is led by reverends out of North Carolina and New York, who are encouraging activists in 40 states to take part in acts of civil disobedience, teach-ins and demonstrations to force communities to address poverty. They say only a “moral revival” can bring it to the nation’s consciousness.