The Poor People’s Campaign, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., focused the attention of participants in the Civil Rights Movement on poverty and economic inequality. In 1969, Rev. Jesse Jackson led efforts in Chicago focused specifically on hunger and malnutrition in the city’s Black community, including a march of 2,000 people to the Illinois State Capitol, demanding that the state government declare Illinois a “disaster area” due to reports of starvation. Hundreds of people protested for months until the state government promised a substantial $5.4 million boost in funding for school lunch programs.