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Title on Reel (transcribed from original)
[Unidentified #10], Police ID
Date Created
1968-05-18
Reel Format
16mm
Reel Description
This reel contains footage of the Poor People's Campaign march in Richmond, likely the portion where they marched north from Southside over the Robert E. Lee Memorial Bridge. The footage is shot from above, perhaps an overpass, with wide shots of the crowd. The footage is blurry. This appears to be a group of majority Black participants. There is also a significant uniformed police presence on foot, on horseback, and on motorcycles.
Timestamp Description
00:00:09 Footage begins. Footage show from above of the march walking from the top to the bottom of the frame. The camera repeatedly pans back and forth across the crowd, and zooms in and out. The crowd is at least a dozen individuals across, and uniformed police flank both sides of it. Many of the marchers hold hands throughout the crowd.
00:01:11 At the back of the pedestrian marchers, six individuals in marshals jackets walk holding hands with arms extended, forming a barrier at the back of the march. They are followed by three uniformed officers on motorcycles.
00:01:19 Footage cuts to the motor vehicle portion of the march. Cars drive by with individuals sitting on the hood and on the back of them. Some individuals walk alongside the cars.
00:01:28 A U-Haul truck is visible, followed by more cars.
00:01:41 Footage of a new angle of the march, still filmed from above, with the caravan moving away from the camera from the bottom to the top of the frame. Individuals walk on the sidewalk to the left while vehicles are in the road. The camera pans to the bulk of pedestrian marchers in the street.
00:02:06 Over-exposed footage of the march moving from the right to the left side of the frame, filmed from a distance. A bridge is visible in the background. Parked cars are visible, as well as uniformed police officers on horseback.
00:03:30 Footage filmed from above, possibly from the same overpass as the beginning of the footage. Cars drive from the top of the frame towards the bottom, followed by uniformed police on horses and marchers.
00:03:39 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
00:04:09
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; Mounted police; Police horses; Animals in police work; 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 #04, 1968 May 18
File Name
VCU_M571_148.mp4