Approximately five hundred participants in the Poor People’s March on Washington, a vision of Martin Luther King Jr., stayed overnight in Knoxville on May 9, 1968. Two students requested that the marchers be allowed to sleep in Stokely Athletics Center, but the administrative response was that “UT facilities are available only for University-related functions that serve an educational purpose” and that the People’s March did not meet the criteria, so participants could not be allowed to stay in Stokely Athletics Center or other campus facilities. The marchers stayed overnight at the Jacob Building in Chilhowee Park. The UT Black Students’ Union served as marshals for the march.