equilibrium by Friday (May 24) of that week. It also reported the appearance of celebrity visitors, including D.C. Mayor Walter Washington, Illinois Senator Charles H. Percy, and prominent SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael. Reports surfaced quickly that some of the young marshals were bullying people, particularly white journalists who had been invited to cover the city. It also encountered confusion and criticism when Bernard Lafayette announced that Resurrection City needed $3 million, but couldn't convincingly explain why. Activity SCLC leaders led groups of residents on marches and small excursions in attempts to meet with members of Congress. These actions were mostly uneventful. The City never conducted large-scale civil disobedience actions in Washington as King had envisioned. The Community Relations Service sent agents, dubbed the "RC squad", who monitored and assisted the camp, actively endeavoring to sustain its morale. FBI surveillance of the campaign also continued with agents posing as journalists and payment of Black informants within the City. Military intelligence also spied on the city, wiretapping the campaign, posing as press and generally duplicating FBI efforts. Everyday life Thousands of people lived in Resurrection City and in some ways it resembled other cities. Gordon Mantler writes: Resurrection City also became a community with all of the tensions that any society contains: hard work and idleness, order and turmoil, punishment and redemption. Businesses flourished inside the tent city's walls, as did street crime. Older men informally talked politics while playing checkers or having their hair cut; others argued in more formal courses and workshops. There were unusual problems but there was also unusual dignity. Residents called it "the city where you don't pay taxes, where there's no police brutality and you don't go to jail." Resurrection City had a university, a "Soul Tent", a psychiatrist, and a city hall. Demoralization The group suffered from political demoralization, conflicts over leadership, racial tension, and, always, difficult living conditions. Permanent residents became fewer as the occupation went on. People reported discipline problems, attributed to a few problematic residents who continually harassed and abused their neighbors. Abernathy was criticized for staying in a hotel and for cooperating with the Johnson administration to reduce the impact of the demonstration. The camp suffered from the mud produced by continual rain, which at one point created standing water five inches deep. The wet and muddy protestors nevertheless made numerous mostly unsuccessful efforts to meet with their members of Congress.