1968 Freedom Train march in Memphis shown in color photos – Commercial Appeal

In what The Commercial Appeal described as “a symbolic dramatization of poverty,” a mule-drawn wagon clip-clopped through the streets of Downtown Memphis on May 2, 1968, trailed by a reported 500 marchers.
The men in the wagon wore work clothes that belied their academic credentials. At the reins was the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, in heavy shoes and dungarees, his sleeves rolled up past his elbows. Wearing overalls and seated next to Abernathy was the Rev. A.D. King, younger brother of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The Memphis Press-Scimitar described the pack animals as “two old, skinny mules,” but Abernathy — the successor to Dr. King as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference — appeared robust.
Before the march, he joined King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, where King had been assassinated less than a month earlier. He led a crowd of about 1,000 people in the hymn “Rock of Ages.” Mrs. King spoke. “My husband has not been killed,” she said. “His words speak louder today than ever before to those who cherish his legacy of dignity, nonviolence and love, justice, peace and truth.”
Abernathy’s blue shirt and blue jeans were more a matter of memory than of record until last month, when Jeremy Harmon, director of photography and visuals for The Tennessean and USA Today’s South Region, discovered some forgotten photos by Ken Keim of the event in the Jackson Sun’s archive — color photos, in contrast to the black-and-white photography that was standard for newspapers at the time. The color gives the images a snapshot immediacy that fits the roll-up-your-sleeves dynamism of the action captured in the pictures.
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The mule wagon and marchers were headed to Marks, Mississippi, to join a “Freedom Train” of wagons, car pools and chartered buses on its way to Washington, where a protest camp was set up on the mall between the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol.
The camp was a manifestation of King’s “Poor People’s Campaign,” a fight for economic justice that Abernathy said would represent “all segments of the poor, including whites from the Appalachia area, Indians, Mexican-Americans and Puerto Ricans,” according to the Press-Scimitar. Marks had been chosen by King because the extreme poverty of the region seemed especially shocking at a time when the federal government was spending billions of dollars a year on the war in Vietnam.
If the protest’s motivation seemed worthy, the editorial writers at the Press-Scimitar nevertheless gave the effort only a grudging endorsement. “It’s too bad they can’t quit while they are ahead,” stated the newspaper’s lead May 2 editorial, headlined “Abernathy and the March.”
The editorial praised the apparent progress made during a meeting to discuss jobs, housing, welfare benefits and other issues that had brought Abernathy and other civil rights leader together with “Washington officialdom” earlier in the week. The newspaper, however, then went on to suggest the march was unnecessary, in part because of “the possibility that the lawless will use the march to foment violence.”
“If the marchers must march,” the editorial concluded, “they would best serve their cause by making their Washington visit as brief, constructive and orderly as possible.”
In fact, thousands of people took part in protests in connected with the Poor People’s Campaign in Washington that spring. Arriving in various caravans, they constructed what newspapers labeled “shantytowns” on the mall, including a so-called “Resurrection City” that lasted six weeks and had some several thousand residents. Demands included an “Economic Bill of Rights” that would include a living wage, access to health care and other opportunities that continue to be debated in 2023.
According to Noelle Trent, director of Interpretations, Collections and Education at the National Civil Rights Museum, Resurrection City was not just “a massive demonstration of the working poor” but “very much a functioning community.” Multiracial and multilingual, “they had a town hall, they had medical facilities, they had an education area” that provided instruction in legislative engagement, environmental justice and so on, Trent said.
She said King announced the tent city in December 1967. “The idea of being on the mall was that Congress could not ignore them,” she said. “They would have to see them every day on their way to work.”
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Much mainstream news coverage was critical. A Press-Scimitar reporter wrote that the protest city was overhung with “a miasma of despair,” as if the dream invoked by King in his famous speech during the 1963 March on Washington “had become an endless nightmare.”
At the end of June, police and the National Guard cleared the mall with tear gas and evicted the remaining protesters. Among those arrested was Abernathy, who was sentenced to 20 days. He didn’t seem too concerned with his particular plight. “Millions of Americans are in the prison of poverty,” he said.
Prior to the protests, Abernathy’s remarks in Memphis on May 1 at Mason Temple — site of Dr. King’s “Mountaintop” speech — were similarly no-nonsense. Encouraging attendees to actively support the economic justice campaign, Abernathy said: “Any of you who wish to tarry around the cemetery and moan around the grave of Martin Luther King, I’ve got news for you. We’ve got business on the road.
“Nothing would please the power structure more than if we stopped simply because they killed your leader,” he said.
As for the mules: “The mules didn’t make it to the march which climaxed the Poor People’s Campaign,” the Scripps-Howard News Service reported.
“The 26 animals, along with 13 rickety wagons which made up the symbolic train which originated in Marks, Miss., stayed in an improvised corral across the Potomac River in Virginia.” The mule train had been scheduled to be at the head of the march, but organizers changed the plan due to “the crush of people.”
Trent said the caravans and mall protest may not have resulted in any immediate legislation but “it’s a mistake to say the campaign was not successful.
“It educated a group of people not only on their rights but on how you engage with people in power. For those who took part, the skill sets they got were transferable.”
John Beifuss is a pop culture and features reporter for The  Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at [email protected].

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