Poster for the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A poster printed by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and used in the Poor People’s Campaign. The top half of the poster is white and the bottom half is black. Centered black and white cursive text and white, stylized, cursive text that reads [... with the black man it's welfare / with the whites, subsidies.” / MARTIN LUTHER KING JR]. In the bottom left corner is white, stylized, block text that reads, [S.C.L.C. POOR PEOPLE’S CAMPAIGN]. In the bottom right corner is the name of the graphic designer, [OSTROW] printed in white, stylized, block text. There is an inscription written in black ink on the back of the poster that reads, [GIFT OF FAYE PORCHE].

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1968
• Designed by: Unidentified
• Distributed by: Southern Christian Leadership Conference, American, founded 1957
• Subject of: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., American, 1929 - 1968
• Subject of: Poor People's Campaign, American, 1967 - 1968
• Type: posters
• Medium: ink on paperboard
• Dimensions: H x W x D: 28 1/16 × 22 1/16 × 1/16 in. (71.3 × 56.1 × 0.2 cm)
• Place used: Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Activism
• Topic: Civil Rights
• Topic: Justice
• Topic: Poverty
• Topic: U.S. History, 1961-1969
• Object number: 2017.107.6
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Vincent A. deForest in honor of John deForest
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The displayed image also has an explicit CC0 designation. The underlying object's rights statement is: No known copyright restrictions Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.