Files
Download File (203.0 MB)
Loading...
Title on Reel (transcribed from original)
Poor Peoples [sic] March, Saturday May 18, 1968, Richmond, Va.
Date Created
1968-05-18
Reel Format
Super 8mm
Reel Description
This reel contains footage likely at the Southside parking lot where the Poor People's Campaign march in Richmond began. Several dozen individuals stand in groups in a large open space, talking and moving about. Several individuals in marshal jackets are seen. There is also a stage and some footage of speakers on the stage, likely from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Most are wearing day clothes, some are dressed in religious clothing including clerical collars, and many holding signs. This appears to be a group of majority Black participants.
Timestamp Description
00:00:10 Footage begins. Footage of two individuals in "Poor People's Campaign 1968" marshal jackets outdoors, with individuals visible behind them wearing red armbands. Panning footage of the parking lot, a "Transmission Products, Inc." sign is visible on the building in the background. Individuals gather, speaking with one another, some hold walkie talkies.
00:00:24 Behind the gathering crowd is an elevated platform stage, with several wooden folding chairs. Some of the chairs have individuals sitting in them. Other individuals are partially visible standing on the stage.
00:00:30 Footage of the stage with individuals standing in front of it. One individual on stage holds a microphone, another appears to speak into a second microphone attached to a podium. Approximately seven individuals are standing or sitting on the stage.
00:00:39 The camera pans back down and films a group of individuals, three of which wear marshal jackets, and one holds a walkie talkie.
00:00:49 Footage cuts to another individual in a marshal jacket wearing a beret and smoking a cigarette. The camera follows them as they walk away.
00:00:57 Footage of an individual wearing a red arm band and carrying paper, they move out of frame and more individuals are visible standing and walking around. Some individuals wear red armbands, others wear paper tags on their clothing with red circles drawn on them. Part of a bus is visible behind the crowd on the left hand side of the frame.
00:01:12 Footage of two individuals speaking, on the right is an individual in a marshal jacket, on the left is an individual writing in a notepad, perhaps a journalist. The stage is visible behind them.
00:01:14 Footage of an individual on the stage, pointing into the crowd. They wear some sort of religious clothing.
00:01:17 Footage of another individual in a marshal jacket, the same one from the beginning of the reel, walking across the parking lot. They have a paper tag with a blue circle drawn on it attached to their clothing including a clerical collar.
00:01:19 Footage of to several individuals speaking to one another on the stage.
00:01:30 Multiple clips of of individuals in the crowd.
00:01:41 Footage of an individual on the stage wearing a jacket with the Virginia Union University seal on it, and a red arm band.
00:01:48 Footage of an individual in a marshal jacket in the crowd. They are biting their nails and smoking a cigarette.
00:01:51 Footage of the same individual in a marshal jacket with their back to the camera, the jacket reads: "Poor People's Campaign, 1968, Washington, D.C." Another cut to another person in the crowd.
00:01:56 Zoomed in footage of two individuals on the stage, on the right is the individual wearing a clerical collar.
00:02:03 Footage of two other individuals sitting in chairs on the stage. They both hold paper in their hands. The camera zooms in on them.
00:02:09 Footage of individuals in the crowd.
00:02:15 Footage of one of the individuals on the stage speaking into a microphone.
00:02:23 Footage of another speaker on the stage, standing at the podium and speaking into a microphone on a stand.
00:02:34 Footage of an individual looking at a stack of papers, resting on the roof of a car. Another individual in a marshal jacket with a stack of papers joins them. The camera pans down to film the driver of the car.
00:02:41 Footage of the ground, with individuals sitting on chairs on the stage visible in the background.
00:02:44 Footage of the back of an individual in a marshal jacket. They have a bumper sticker on the back of the jacket that reads: " 'I'm On My Way' I Support The Poor People's March, [bottom line illegible]".
00:02:49 Footage of an individual driving a car with a second person in the passenger seat. Footage then cuts to their rear license plate.
00:03:01 Footage of the crowd, individuals walking and speaking. Some wear red armbands. A group of three individuals walks with what appears to be a stroller in front of them.
00:03:07 Footage of the stage where an individual in a cowboy hat is speaking into the microphone at the podium. The individual in the clerical collar to their right throws up a raised fist salute.
00:03:15 Footage of the crowd, the camera follows an individual in a marshal jacket listening to a walkie talkie. Footage of the crowd continues.
00:03:28 Footage ends.
Event Description
The Poor People's Campaign occurred between May 12 and June 24 1968. Suggested to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by NAACP director Marion Wright, the campaign sought to bring poor and working class people to Washington, D.C. to demand "jobs, unemployment insurance, a fair minimum wage, and education for poor adults and children designed to improve their self-image and self-esteem" from the government. After Dr. King's assassination on April 4, 1968, Ralph Abernathy succeeded King as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and continued plans for the campaign. The first official date of the campaign was May 12, Mother's Day, when Coretta Scott King and thousands of women demonstrated in D.C. The next day, Resurrection City was established on the National Mall. According to a flier from the Civil Rights Movement Archive, a southern caravan to Washington D.C. began in Edwards, Mississippi, on May 5th. It arrived in Richmond on May 18. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported on May 19 that the 13-bus, 450-person caravan traveled from Norfolk, with the number growing to 800 people upon arrival in Richmond. At 4PM on May 18, the caravan arrived in an unidentified vacant lot in Southside, where remarks from SCLC officials were given, snacks passed around, and the crowd marched north over the Robert E. Lee Memorial Bridge, surrounded by a large police presence. The march grew, perhaps to around 2,000 people, and went to Presbyterian School of Christian Education, now Union Presbyterian Seminary, on Brook Road in the Northside neighborhood, where dinner was served. Hosea Williams, field director of SCLC, spoke to a remaining 1,000 individuals at 10:55PM. Marchers spent the night at Virginia Union University, Union Theological Seminary, and in private homes. Read more about the Poor People's Campaign via the Stanford University Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute and the National Museum of African American History & Culture.
Runtime
00:03:35
Personal Name Subject
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968; Abernathy, Ralph, 1926-1990; Williams, Hosea, 1926-2000
Corporate Name Subject
Virginia Union University (Richmond, Va.); Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education; Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.)
Topical Subject
Poor People's Campaign; Anti-poverty movements; Demonstrations; Crowds; Processions; Motorcades; Public welfare; Welfare rights movement; "Civil rights movements; Civil rights movements--United States; Civil rights demonstrations; Civil rights workers; Clergy; Police; Police patrol--Surveillance operations; Electronic surveillance; Video surveillance
City/Location
Richmond (Va.)
Genre
color films (visual works)
Local Genre
moving image
Type
Moving Image
Digital Format
video/mp4
Language
eng
Rights Statement URL
Rights
This material is in the public domain in the United States and thus is free of any copyright restriction. Acknowledgement of Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries as a source is requested.
Collection
Richmond Police Department Surveillance Collection
Source
Poor People's Campaign Caravan in Richmond Film Reel #03, 1968 May 18
File Name
VCU_M571_096.mp4