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Poor People's Campaign

The Poor People’s Campaign has recently seen a revival led nationally by North Carolina’s Rev. William Barber. This follows in the footsteps of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign fifty years ago that sought to bring together a multiracial and multiethnic coalition of the poor across the United States to fight for social and economic justice. The Arkansas Poor People’s Campaign is today’s state affiliate of the national organization. Back in 1969, it was Forrest City native and factory worker Cato Brooks, Jr. who led calls for a poor people’s march from West Memphis to Little Rock after whites in his hometown balked at local civil rights demands. Cooley postponed the march after Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller intervened to offer assurances that he would initiate changes at a state level.