The only thing we had to look forward to was going to church on Sunday, said City of Marks Mayor Joe Shegog. It was a lot of hopeless people in this vicinity, in this county; especially this community, so the Mule Train was to bring hope, said Dr. Lackey.
Fifty-three years later, wagon wheels or markers will mark his visit to the Mississippi Delta county. The first leg of the journey, Silent Grove Baptist Church, where Dr. King stopped to rally support for the Poor People s Campaign, Valley Queen Baptist Chruch when he visited a local head start program and saw homes and people living in extreme poverty and the infamous Cotton Street neighborhood where he wept and where what he saw inspired him to take up the fight against poverty and economic justice.