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Up To Date

Seg 1: Poor People's Campaign Revival. Seg 2: The Longtime Face Of Kansas City Civil Rights Cases.

Black and white image of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. surrounded by people.
Rowland Scherman
/
U.S. National Archives
Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. launched the Poor People's Campaign in 1967. He led the movement up until he was murdered in 1968.

Segment 1: 50 years after its start, Martin Luther King Jr.'s movement for economic justice has been revitalized.

With his assassination in 1968, the momentum behind the then recently-launched Poor People's Campaign waned. Today, we learned about the national push to resurrect this movement and the 40-day plan for protests at statehouses across the country, including those in Topeka, Kansas, and Jefferson City, Missouri. 

Segment 2, beginning at 22:41: The lead attorney from the infamous Kansas City school desegretation case has a long legacy of civil liberties cases.

If you live in Kansas City and  are interested in legal cases involving public schools, medicaid funding, free speech, Planned Parenthood, or wrongful conviction, you likely know his name. Today, we talked with attorney Arthur Benson about his ongoing and outstanding legal career. 

When I host Up To Date each morning at 9, my aim is to engage the community in conversations about the Kansas City area’s challenges, hopes and opportunities. I try to ask the questions that listeners want answered about the day’s most pressing issues and provide a place for residents to engage directly with newsmakers. Reach me at steve@kcur.org or on Twitter @stevekraske.