I participated in the End Hunger in America March back in 1968 and stood along the reflecting pool, just on the other side of these makeshift huts and tents. I still have my protest poster, in fact. I'm commenting because I noticed that one contributor to this critique has a rather selective memory.
Resurrection City was squalid... it reeked, actually. But the sentiments were heartfelt and sincere. The press did NOT favor the protest - the papers were extremely critical, printing pictures much like this one. However, the press coverage - and there was a lot of it, if you were watching and listening - did help keep the police in check. The memory of their brutal response to earlier anti-war protests was still fresh and the tension was thick... there were threats early on from the DC Police that they would attack the protestors, arrest them wholesale and demolish the encampment.
In the end, DC and the Feds did nothing -- it as if they decided that, if they couldn't demolish it, they certainly weren't going to work with the protestors in any way. The whole protest lasted way too long - it lost its focus and what little support it ever had, and was finally abandoned, leaving behind acres of muck and ill will. A short time later, King was assassinated and the city erupted in flames.
Wingell's sullen photo captures the time extremely well -- it matches my memories of the encampment by the Reflecting Pool.
Resurrection City, 1968
in Journalism
Posted
I participated in the End Hunger in America March back in 1968 and stood along the reflecting pool, just on the other side of these makeshift huts and tents. I still have my protest poster, in fact. I'm commenting because I noticed that one contributor to this critique has a rather selective memory.
Resurrection City was squalid... it reeked, actually. But the sentiments were heartfelt and sincere. The press did NOT favor the protest - the papers were extremely critical, printing pictures much like this one. However, the press coverage - and there was a lot of it, if you were watching and listening - did help keep the police in check. The memory of their brutal response to earlier anti-war protests was still fresh and the tension was thick... there were threats early on from the DC Police that they would attack the protestors, arrest them wholesale and demolish the encampment.
In the end, DC and the Feds did nothing -- it as if they decided that, if they couldn't demolish it, they certainly weren't going to work with the protestors in any way. The whole protest lasted way too long - it lost its focus and what little support it ever had, and was finally abandoned, leaving behind acres of muck and ill will. A short time later, King was assassinated and the city erupted in flames.
Wingell's sullen photo captures the time extremely well -- it matches my memories of the encampment by the Reflecting Pool.