Resurrection City: Untitled

As the United States emerged in the 1960s as a global model of wealth and democracy, an estimated 35 million Americans lived in poverty.

From the elderly and underemployed to children and persons with disabilities, poverty affected people of every race, age, and region. Although President Lyndon B. Johnson had declared a “war on poverty” in 1964, social inequalities and unequal access to opportunities left many Americans struggling. Soon, many people felt the Vietnam War undermined the War on Poverty and other domestic issues.

In response, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph David Abernathy, organized a Poor People’s Campaign to confront poverty as a national human rights issue and help move it out of the shadows of the Vietnam War. As a multiethnic movement, thousands of Americans of all races and backgrounds descended on Washington, D.C. in May and June of 1968 for the six-week, live-in demonstration known as "Resurrection City," marking a new era in American history.

Photographer Jill Freedman captured this image of a SCLC marshal in Resurrection City wearing a pinback button with the Greek letter “Omega,” a symbol used by the draft resistance and anti-war movement.

A silver gelatin print depicting a black-and-white image of man wearing an SCLC marshall badge and an Omega button. The man sits looking towards the camera, with his head tilted slightly down. He has wavy hair and a goatee with mustache. He wears a light button-down shirt with a darker color jacket. On the jacket is a SCLC Marshall badge that reads [POOR PEOPLES CAMPAIGN / NAME (RAYMOND MURRY / ADDRESS (CHICAGO ILLINOIS / BLOOD TYPE (IF KNOWN) [illegible] / SIGNATURE [illegible] / SCLC / 1401 U. STREET, NW / WASHINGTON, D.C. / [illegible] / MARSHAL]. Beneath the badge is an anti-Vietnam War draft pinback button with the Greek letter Omega on it. The print is signed on the back in graphite [Jill Freedman].