Hunger’s Wall: Tell It Like It Is. Resurrection City, 1968

The University of Baltimore is marking the 50th anniversary of the Poor People’s Campaign with an interdisciplinary exploration of the history and effects of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s last campaign, one that tragically he would not live to see through to the end. Dr. King had planned a new moral awakening to the issue of poverty, culminating in a massive march on Washington in May of 1968. The month after Dr. King’s assassination, groups of African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Appalachian whites lived out his vision when they travelled to D.C., some via mule train, and camped on the National Mall to highlight the issues of jobs, justice and freedom. They championed their cause through inclusion, not division; transcendence, not scapegoating; and civility, not rancor.

In 2018 the University of Baltimore welcomes Lenneal Henderson and Marc Steiner, two men who marched to Washington in 1968 and lived for a month in Resurrection City, the campaign’s encampment on the D.C. mall. Henderson, professor emeritus of Government and Public Policy at UB, and Steiner, a legendary Baltimore radio host, will team-teach an interdisciplinary course in the spring, inviting community members to UB’s campus for public sessions that will bring the concerns of the Poor People’s Campaign up to the present day.

In preparation for the spring course, students in a special topics history course, HIST 497, will research and design an exhibit that will be mounted in the lobby of UB’s Learning Commons during the first public sessions of the spring course.

The Poor People’s Campaign course is generously supported by the Randolph B. Rosencrantz Memorial Fund and Maryland Humanities Council.