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During a rainy May and June of 1968, there was a separate community in the center of the Nation's capital. ^[[this was resur. city. It was]]  It was built and occupied, and then emptied and dismantled, all in 6 weeks and 1 day.  In between, carrying out a plan begun by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and completed by members of the Poor People's Campaign of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, its residents formed both a symbol and a city.  It was named Resurrection City.

As a symbol, it was to make visible the American poor.  It was to stand for their needs, hopes and frustrations.  For some, it stood for more than severe poverty, poor diets, poor housing, poor medical attention.  Some, better off, were now seeking relief from social and political injustices, usually those stemming from race.  Some wanted the means to join the rest of the country in acquiring the advertised paraphernalia of abundance.  Some looked for more meaning to their national and individual lives.  But, for many, it stood for poverty.

[[handwritten in margin: Difference between symbolism to participant and that to outside observer?]]

As a city, it was to be composed of representatives of these poor.  Those who came included some who were there for the excitement ^[[and some who were there]] for the trip.  But, most were there to represent the poor.

This symbol was put up seventeen blocks from the Congress it was meant to confront, and even closer to most of the agencies and departments appointed to serve the country.  It was build between the monuments to Lincoln and Washington, men who have become symbols of the conflicts

[[handwritten in margin: Tie in site selection criteria from other MS]]