Senate Resolution 8

A RESOLUTION JOINING THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI IN COMMEMORATING THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1968 "MULE TRAIN-POOR PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN MARCH" FROM MARKS, MISSISSIPPI, TO WASHINGTON, D.C.

WHEREAS, fifty years ago in April 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., was scheduled to lead 28 wagons pulled by mules in a caravan from poverty-stricken Marks, Mississippi, to the nation's Capitol. While the Civil Rights Icon's assassination delayed the Mule Train, the Campaign for jobs and justice did eventually make its 1,000-mile, monthlong trek from Quitman County to Pennsylvania Avenue; and

WHEREAS, as part of a yearlong monthly series of events commemorating the anniversary of that historic event, the University of Mississippi is hosting a National Conference for academicians and other interested people. "Honoring the 50th Anniversary of the 1968 Mule Train-Poor People's Campaign by Implementing Classroom Theory in Marks, Mississippi," will be held March 28-29, 2018, at various locations on campus and in Marks. The university's McLean Institute for Public Service and Community Engagement, Center for Population Studies and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology are co-sponsors; and

WHEREAS, community engagement through community-based participatory research is essential for more equitable approaches to social and economic development. To advance the intent of the Mule Train will improve well-being, connect the talents and resources of community changemakers, and the faculty, staff and students working through the university; and

WHEREAS, the 50th Anniversary observance began in Marks in May 2017, and will conclude there in May 2018. Each month honors different Mule Train participants and highlights their contribution to the campaign. A week of special events is scheduled for May 13-18 in Marks to end the observance. Former U.S. Representative Andrew Young, Jr., is scheduled to speak at the closing ceremony. An early leader in the Civil Rights Movement, Young served as Executive Director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and a close confidant of King. He later became active in politics, serving first as a Congressman from Georgia, then U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and finally Mayor of Atlanta. Other organizations behind the 50th Anniversary observance are the Quitman County Development Organization, Inc., Marks Project, Marks Historical Society, the Mule and Blues Fest, the Mule Train Museum Project, SCLC, the Reclaimed Project, Alcorn State University Agriculture Extension Services, the Tougaloo College Farmers Project, the Mississippi State University Downtown Project and the Mississippi Valley State University Rural Farm Policy Program; and

WHEREAS, each generation looks at history from a different perspective. Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. It is with great reverence that the State of Mississippi join the commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of Dr. King's assassination and the "Mule Train March":

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, That we do hereby join The University of Mississippi in commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the 1968 "Mule Train-Poor People's Campaign March" from Marks, Mississippi, to Washington, D.C.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That we encourage The University of Mississippi and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum to coordinate appropriate events and educational programs to bring attention to this important historic landmark.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That this resolution be transmitted to The University of Mississippi and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, and made available to the Capitol Press Corps.