“Marian Wright with Robert Kennedy.” 1967. AP Archives.

Marian Wright, Peter Edelman, and the Mule Train

In 1967, lawyer Marian Wright took Senator Robert F. Kennedy and his aide Peter Edelman on a tour of the Mississippi Delta, highlighting starvation among poor, rural Black families. Galvanized by what he saw, Kennedy demanded immediate relief for the Delta from the Secretary of Agriculture. Edelman returned to the region on a fact-finding trip, crafting a plan for the Poor People’s Campaign for protest in Washington. In 1968, thirteen mule-pulled wagons, known as the “Mule Train,” left Mississippi displaying messages reading “stop the war and feed the poor,” successfully convincing the Department of Agriculture to send emergency supplies to the region.

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Marian Wright, Peter Edelman, and the Mule Train

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