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Title on Reel (transcribed from original)
Poor Peoples [sic] Campaign, June 1968
Date Created
1968-05-18
Reel Format
16mm
Reel Description
This reel contains footage of the Poor People's Campaign Caravan driving through Richmond, Virginia. It also contains footage of individuals in the campaign outside of the Presbyterian School of Christian Education on Brook Road. This appears to be a group of majority Black participants.
Timestamp Description
00:00:13 Footage begins. Panning footage of five uniformed police officers on horseback.
00:00:20 A uniformed police officer walks down a sidewalk with trees in the background. The camera pans right to the Poor People's Campaign march, dozens of individuals walk in rows three to six across. At the front are three individuals wearing blue "Marshal" jackets. Every few feet a uniformed police officer walks alongside the left of the crowd. An individual in a wheelchair is visible. Some individuals carry walkie talkies with antennas raised.
00:00:39 Continued footage of the march, slightly zoomed in.
00:01:11 An individual in the crowd holds their sign towards the camera, it reads: "Open Doors of Opportunity For Black People". Some individuals wear red armbands, others wear paper tags with red circles drawn on them.
00:01:28 The on-foot part of the march seems to end, and three police trikes follow, then followed by several cars with individuals riding in them. Some cars have individuals also riding on the outside of the car, sitting on the hood or on the doors of convertibles.
00:02:08 The camera cuts to follow and individual in a marshal jacket running in the direction that the march has moved in.
00:02:09 Footage of more cars in the march/caravan.
00:02:25 Footage of five uniformed police officers on horseback. One holds up two fingers, in the form of a V or peace sign, to the camera.
00:02:37 Dark footage of cars and buses parked in the street, a horse is also visible.
00:02:49 Brighter footage of the same cars parked in the street with individuals standing in the grass behind them. Two trucks with "General Truck Rental Service" are visible. Behind them are a number of buses, and two individuals wait to board the one in the front. Cars drive down the street past the caravan. The camera then pans across the roadway, it appears the individual filming is standing in the median. Individuals stand waiting to cross in a crosswalk in the median. They are moving towards the Presbyterian School of Christian Education on Brook Road in Richmond. Dozens more individuals are standing on the sidewalk on the other side of the road.
00:03:05 Individuals are seen crossing Brook Road away from Presbyterian School of Christian Education towards the buses, many carrying luggage. This movement is filmed several times.
00:03:35 The "Presbyterian School of Christian Education" sign is visible as the camera pans past the building. Much of this footage is blurry.
00:03:50 Dark footage of what appears to be individuals gathered on the sidewalk in front of the aforementioned buses.
00:04:02 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
00:04:20
Note
The film reel is labeled "June 1968" but the Poor People's Campaign 1968 Southern Caravan to Washington D.C. arrived in Richmond on Saturday, May 18, 1968. It is believed that is the date this reel is from.
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 #06, 1968 May 18
File Name
VCU_M571_034.mp4