DC Public Library's Soul Tent: A People's University Experience presentation

"On Mary 12, 1968 the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Poor People's Campaign arrived in Washington D.C. Nearly 6,000 people descended on the National Mall and the 40-day encampment came to be known as Resurrection City. Caravans brought thousands of people: black civil rights activists and poor residents of the South, Puerto Ricans of New York, Chicano workers of the Southwest, whites of Appalachia, and American Indians of the West. They had come to the nation's capital to demand a dramatic redistribution of wealth put forth in an Economic Bill of Rights. Resurrection City's Many Races Soul Center, or Soul Tent, became a site of cultural exchange where residents could celebrate shared experiences of struggle through music and cultural expression. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of 1968 in Washington, D.C., the DC Public Library will revisit the legacy of Resurrection City's Soul Tent, and considered this historic struggle for justice in the context of today. To celebrate this 50th anniversary, the DC Public Library's Soul Tent: a People's University Experience visited four DC Public Library locations May-July of 2018. The exhibit included visual and audio displays, community storytelling, musical performances, listening sessions of speeches and music from Resurrection City '69, and poster making workshops. The idea to create an exhibit to celebrate the lesser known history of 1968's Poor People Campaign was rooted in the need to promote DCPL's Poor People's Collection, being digitized for the first time during the 50th anniversary year. Libraries and archives are continually generating new ways to display and make accessible the incredible content within these institutions, so the Soul Tent project became another example of the unique creative approach." Project funding was provided by a Historic Preservation Fund grant to the District of Columbia Historic Preservation Office, Office of Planning, administered by the State, Tribal, Local Plans and Grants division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior (grant number P17AF00101).

DC Public Library's Soul Tent: A People's University Experience presentation

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