Did the dream end there? Adult education and Resurrection City 1968

Abstract

This article considers the role played by adult education in a temporary community called Resurrection City in 1968. It draws on primary source documents and oral testimonies from three archives. Social movement theory and the ideas of Freire and Gramsci provide a conceptual framework. In May 1968 around 6,000 poor people from across the United States converged on Washington D.C. to dramatise poverty. They established their own city among the Washington monuments and determined to remain until their demands to end poverty were met. The city lasted six weeks before being closed down. Resurrection City has been largely regarded as a failure in the historiography of the civil rights movement. This neglects the impact on participants of the adult education activities which characterised daily life in the space made possible by the initiative. Adult education, including a Poor People's University at Resurrection City, brought together the poor from different racial, cultural and educational backgrounds to discuss, reflect on and engage with the issue of poverty. Resurrection City provided a template for other social movements which followed; participants found common ground which transcended their differences in background and developed a deeper understanding of how to advance their struggle for economic justice.