美国国家公共电台 NPR How A Mule Train From Marks, Miss., Kicked Off MLK's Poor People Campaign

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Fifty years ago today, a mule¹ train of covered wagons³ left the small town of Marks, Miss., headed for the nation's capital. It was fulfilling the mission of the Rev⁴. Martin Luther King Jr. to draw attention to the impoverished⁵ conditions that many African-Americans lived in.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: We're coming to Washington in a poor people's campaign.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: As part of our series looking at how events from the 1968 shaped our country, NPR's Debbie Elliott has a look at Marks, Miss., then and now.

DEBBIE ELLIOTT, BYLINE⁶: Martin Luther King Jr. picked Marks, Miss., as the starting point for the poor people's campaign because of what he had witnessed there.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

KING JR.: I tell you I saw hundreds of little black boys and black girls walking the streets with no shoes to wear.

ELLIOTT: King was speaking at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. on March 31, 1968. He described being brought to tears by conditions in the Mississippi Delta⁷, a region where, long after slavery, black sharecroppers remained on plantations⁸ working as tenant⁹ farmers.

MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN: The bottom line was hunger, hunger, hunger. And you go up in the field, and you would just see the hungry children and the bloated bellies¹⁰.

ELLIOTT: Children's Defense¹¹ Fund founder¹² Marian Wright Edelman was doing legal work in Mississippi in the 1960s. She recalls King touring a Head Start program in Marks that lost its funding.

EDELMAN: And he saw a teacher, you know, carve up an apple and give it to about eight kids - a slice each. And he was in tears. He had to leave the center.

ELLIOTT: Edelman brought members of Congress, including Sen. Robert Kennedy, to see the deprivation¹³ firsthand but got little traction¹⁴ on poverty programs. She says Kennedy encouraged her to get Martin Luther King to bring the poor to Washington. And King loved the idea. He organized a Poor People's Campaign, a multiracial coalition¹⁵ of poor people who would occupy the National Mall and demand economic justice. It would start from Marks, Miss., with a mule train and a nod to the plight¹⁶ of the black sharecropper.

MICHAEL JOSSEL: Now I'm going to take you to where the mule train was organized - OK?

ELLIOTT: The Rev. Michael Jossel was 14 years old in 1968. He drives through Marks, pointing out the grassy¹⁷ field where the wagon² train assembled.

JOSSEL: Mule train.

ELLIOTT: He says after King was assassinated¹⁸, preparations continued. High school students would help in the afternoons and then march into town every evening.

JOSSEL: To just bring attention that we were tired of living the way we were living.

ELLIOTT: Jossel says when students marched to the jail to protest the arrest of an organizer with the Southern Christian¹⁹ Leadership Conference, they were met by armed troopers.

JOSSEL: And they parked on this side of the street with their helmets and guns and lined up in a single-file and started marching across the street to where we were. They took the butts²⁰ of their guns and start swinging at heads and everything. And we scattered²¹ like bees.

ELLIOTT: Samuel McCray was there, too.

SAMUEL MCCRAY: You went at your own risk.

ELLIOTT: He says teens like him were more willing to participate than older residents who stood to lose their jobs and homes.

MCCRAY: A lot of the parents didn't know there was a better way. You know, yeah, you saw Dr. King and he fighting for all, but then they kill him. So, if they going to kill him, then what about you?

ELLIOTT: McCray's grandmother let him help locally but not ride the mule train to Washington. But others filled about 15 covered wagons and set out across the South. Bertha Burres and her six kids were among them. She talked to SCLC photographer Roland Freeman on the trip. He shared those recordings²² exclusively with NPR.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BERTHA BURRES: We have a great purpose, and this is what I am backing all the way.

ROLAND FREEMAN: You say you know why we're going and we have a great purpose. Would you mind explaining to me, in your own words, what you think this great purpose is?

BURRES: We are in great need of jobs. I need a job that will secure us and help us to bring up our family decently - you know.

ELLIOTT: Burres served as the record keeper for the SCLC. She suffers from dementia now. But her cousin, Betty Crawford, is organizing those papers to preserve the history of the mule train. Crawford recently moved back to Marks, living in a house that's very different from her days growing up in a family of 16 battling worm outbreaks and living in sparse²³ housing.

BETTY CRAWFORD: I was 16 years old before we got inside plumbing²⁴, before we had a house with running water.

ELLIOTT: The mule train brought new possibilities, but Marks, Miss. - population 1,500 - still struggles with poverty today. Jim Crow was legally dismantled²⁵. And African-Americans have political clout²⁶ in the Delta. But economic power is more elusive²⁷. Farm jobs are mostly mechanized now. And smaller businesses have left downtown. Two major employers here, a cotton compacting plant and a seed oil press, have shut down. More than 34 percent of Quitman County residents live below the federal poverty line.

CRAWFORD: Coming in.

ELLIOTT: Betty Crawford checks on an elderly neighbor around the corner.

JULIA MAYWEATHER: Watch out, Betty.

ELLIOTT: Julia Mayweather warns her to avoid rotted-out floorboards.

MAYWEATHER: I usually kind of get over here. You step over to this side.

CRAWFORD: Yeah.

ELLIOTT: A retired²⁸ school cafeteria worker, Mayweather hasn't been able to keep up with repairs since her husband died. She says Martin Luther King would be disheartened to see Marks today.

MAYWEATHER: Because, I tell you what, we don't even have a grocery store in Marks. And I'll tell you another thing - the doctors, too. There's no doctors here. They used to have a hospital. It's gone.

ELLIOTT: The hospital and old SuperValu sit empty on the main highway.

(SOUNDBITE OF TRAIN WHISTLE)

ELLIOTT: This month, Amtrak added a stop in downtown Marks. It's part of a local strategy to develop the region as a tourist destination. Quitman County Administrator²⁹ Velma Benson-Wilson says the history of the poor people's campaign has been buried here for too long.

VELMA BENSON-WILSON: How can we use it to help Quitman County maybe dig itself out of some of the poverty? There has to be a way.

ELLIOTT: She says what started here 50 years ago helped people around the country when Congress passed nutrition and housing programs.

BENSON-WILSON: They were all rooted in what started here in Marks in 1968. And somehow we have not been able to tell that story.

ELLIOTT: The mule train made it to Atlanta to board a rail train bound for Alexandria, Va. On June 19, the caravan³⁰ crossed the Potomac and joined thousands of people from around the country to live in a shantytown known as Resurrection City on the National Mall. Debbie Elliott, NPR News, Marks, Miss.

1 mule   

n.骡子，杂种，执拗的人

参考例句：

• A mule is a cross between a mare and a donkey.骡子是母马和公驴的杂交后代。
• He is an old mule.他是个老顽固。

2 wagon   

n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车

参考例句：

• We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
• The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。

3 wagons   

n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车

参考例句：

• The wagons were hauled by horses. 那些货车是马拉的。
• They drew their wagons into a laager and set up camp. 他们把马车围成一圈扎起营地。

4 rev   

v.发动机旋转，加快速度

参考例句：

• It's his job to rev up the audience before the show starts.他要负责在表演开始前鼓动观众的热情。
• Don't rev the engine so hard.别让发动机转得太快。

5 impoverished   

adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化

参考例句：

• the impoverished areas of the city 这个城市的贫民区
• They were impoverished by a prolonged spell of unemployment. 他们因长期失业而一贫如洗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 delta   

n.（流的）角洲

参考例句：

• He has been to the delta of the Nile.他曾去过尼罗河三角洲。
• The Nile divides at its mouth and forms a delta.尼罗河在河口分岔，形成了一个三角洲。

8 plantations   

n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Soon great plantations, supported by slave labor, made some families very wealthy. 不久之后出现了依靠奴隶劳动的大庄园，使一些家庭成了富豪。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• Winterborne's contract was completed, and the plantations were deserted. 维恩特波恩的合同完成后，那片林地变得荒废了。 来自辞典例句

9 tenant   

n.承租人；房客；佃户；v.租借，租用

参考例句：

• The tenant was dispossessed for not paying his rent.那名房客因未付房租而被赶走。
• The tenant is responsible for all repairs to the building.租户负责对房屋的所有修理。

10 bellies   

n.肚子( belly的名词复数 )；腹部；（物体的）圆形或凸起部份；腹部…形的

参考例句：

• They crawled along on their bellies. 他们匍匐前进。
• starving children with huge distended bellies 鼓着浮肿肚子的挨饿儿童

11 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

12 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

13 deprivation   

n.匮乏；丧失；夺去，贫困

参考例句：

• Many studies make it clear that sleep deprivation is dangerous.多实验都证实了睡眠被剥夺是危险的。
• Missing the holiday was a great deprivation.错过假日是极大的损失。

14 traction   

n.牵引；附着摩擦力

参考例句：

• I'll show you how the traction is applied.我会让你看如何做这种牵引。
• She's injured her back and is in traction for a month.她背部受伤，正在作一个月的牵引治疗。

15 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

16 plight   

n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定

参考例句：

• The leader was much concerned over the plight of the refugees.那位领袖对难民的困境很担忧。
• She was in a most helpless plight.她真不知如何是好。

17 grassy   

adj.盖满草的；长满草的

参考例句：

• They sat and had their lunch on a grassy hillside.他们坐在长满草的山坡上吃午饭。
• Cattle move freely across the grassy plain.牛群自由自在地走过草原。

18 assassinated   

v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏

参考例句：

• The prime minister was assassinated by extremists. 首相遭极端分子暗杀。
• Then, just two days later, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. 跟着在两天以后，肯尼迪总统在达拉斯被人暗杀。 来自辞典例句

19 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

20 butts   

笑柄( butt的名词复数 )； （武器或工具的）粗大的一端； 屁股； 烟蒂

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。
• The house butts to a cemetery. 这所房子和墓地相连。

21 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

22 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

23 sparse   

adj.稀疏的，稀稀落落的，薄的

参考例句：

• The teacher's house is in the suburb where the houses are sparse.老师的家在郊区，那里稀稀拉拉有几处房子。
• The sparse vegetation will only feed a small population of animals.稀疏的植物只够喂养少量的动物。

24 plumbing   

n.水管装置；水暖工的工作；管道工程v.用铅锤测量（plumb的现在分词）；探究

参考例句：

• She spent her life plumbing the mysteries of the human psyche. 她毕生探索人类心灵的奥秘。
• They're going to have to put in new plumbing. 他们将需要安装新的水管。 来自《简明英汉词典》

25 dismantled   

拆开( dismantle的过去式和过去分词 )； 拆卸； 废除； 取消

参考例句：

• The plant was dismantled of all its equipment and furniture. 这家工厂的设备和家具全被拆除了。
• The Japanese empire was quickly dismantled. 日本帝国很快被打垮了。

26 clout   

n.用手猛击；权力，影响力

参考例句：

• The queen may have privilege but she has no real political clout.女王有特权，但无真正的政治影响力。
• He gave the little boy a clout on the head.他在那小男孩的头部打了一下。

27 elusive   

adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的

参考例句：

• Try to catch the elusive charm of the original in translation.翻译时设法把握住原文中难以捉摸的风韵。
• Interpol have searched all the corners of the earth for the elusive hijackers.国际刑警组织已在世界各地搜查在逃的飞机劫持者。

28 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

29 administrator   

n.经营管理者，行政官员

参考例句：

• The role of administrator absorbed much of Ben's energy.行政职务耗掉本很多精力。
• He has proved himself capable as administrator.他表现出管理才能。

30 caravan   

n.大蓬车；活动房屋

参考例句：

• The community adviser gave us a caravan to live in.社区顾问给了我们一间活动住房栖身。
• Geoff connected the caravan to the car.杰弗把旅行用的住屋拖车挂在汽车上。