The Capital: TheScene at ZIP Code 20013

THE CAPITAL

In an elm-lined meadow between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, the 15-acre "Resurrection City" slowly began to take shape last week. As thousands of poor Negroes, Indians, Mexican Americans and a few Appalachian whites wound toward the capital in eight separate caravans from as far off as Seattle, Boston and Edwards, Miss., volunteer carpenters hammered together more than 200 tent-shaped, 10-ft. by 20-ft. plywood-and-plastic shelters to house them.

The enterprise could not be under rated as an imaginative appeal to the nation's conscience, but it was clearly headed for trouble. An air of bedlam hung over the encampment. There were too few shelters. Sewage lines were uncompleted. Only two shower units were available to the nearly 1,000 people on hand at week's end. But the camp site had its amenities too. There were power lines, portable latrines and phone booths. A big blue-topped tent was pitched to serve as a mess hall. Mobile clinics were scheduled to wheel up to dispense medical, dental and psychiatric care. Resurrection City even boasted the ultimate insignia of identity: a ZIP code number (20013).

As headquarters of the Poor People's Campaign—the last project launched by the late Martin Luther King Jr—the shantytown is designed to prod Congress into taking action on behalf of the nearly 30 million poor Americans. To ensure that Congress gets the message, the poor will stage a series of demonstrations climaxed by a Memorial Day march that is expected to draw more than 150,000 participants. What worries official Washington—as well as the tourists who are staying away in droves—is that the "demos" may get out of hand, turning Resurrection City into Insurrection City.

Ugly Episode. With only one-third of the planned 600 shelters completed by week's end, cash, lumber—and occasionally, enthusiasm—were practically depleted. National Coordinator Bernard Lafayette said the campaign had funds only "for the next few days," appealed for $3,000,000 to keep it going. When others angrily pounced on Lafayette for making it sound as if the campaign were being mismanaged, he trimmed his estimate of cash needs to $84,000 and confessed: "I just goofed."

He was not alone, Though it will take $90,000 to feed the tent town's planned population of 3,000 for a month, barely a third of that sum has been raised—despite sizable contributions from such chains as A. & P., Safeway and Giant Food, as well as promises of 850 loaves of bread a day from the baking industry and 1,500 half-pints of milk from local dairies. Discouraged by the turmoil, an abnormal cold snap and a driving rain that turned much of the camp site into a bog, more than 50 of the initial 500 settlers asked to be sent back South.