This weekend will be marked by celebrations large and small
honoring the most revered revolutionary in the civil rights
movement, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Heralded as the God-led,
citizen prophet for nonviolence dedicated to building a beloved
community, King helped expand the franchise of liberty and
equality for African Americans. His pursuit to elevate the
plight of the economically disenfranchised in all of humanity’s
stripes is part of his legacy as well. King understood that
success in getting to sit at lunch counters, once off-limits to
people of color, was blunted by one’s ability to afford to dine
there. The evolution of a new agenda led by King in the autumn
of 1967 called the “Poor People’s Campaign” included demands for
a multi-million dollar anti-poverty package from Congress. This
would be short-circuited just months after its inception by an
assassin’s calculated silencing of King. It was in the course of
that fight for better wages and treatment of black sanitation
workers in Memphis, Tenne