Today income inequality is cited by Americans as a major issue facing the United States. But income inequality did not suddenly become an issue in 2008 with the Great Recession. Income inequality was already a political issue in the 1960s, spurred largely by demands of African American activists within the Civil Rights movement. The issue came to a head in 1968 with a debate over a Universal Basic Income, Martin Luther King Jr.'s Poor People's Campaign, and the deteriorating conditions in American cities that laid bare the stark inequalities of American society.