Memphis sanitation strike

1968 American strike

Memphis sanitation strike

Part of the Civil Rights Movement

The strikers' slogan was "I AM a Man".

Date| February 12 – April 16, 1968
(2 months and 4 days)
Location|

Memphis, Tennessee, Charles Mason Temple, Clayborn Temple

Caused by|

* Racial discrimination faced by black sanitation workers
* Death of Echol Cole and Robert Walker from garbage compactor
* Black sanitation workers exposed to dangerous working conditions

Resulted in|

* Larry Payne killed by police during march and disorder
* Speech "I've Been to the Mountaintop" delivered by Martin Luther King Jr.
* Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968
* Union AFSCME local 1733 recognized by City of Memphis
* Increased wages for sanitation workers by City of Memphis

Parties

* Sanitation workers
* American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
* Community on the Move for Equality (COME)
* Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
* National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

* City of Memphis

|

Lead figures

Sanitation workers

* T. O. Jones

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

* Martin Luther King Jr. †

Mayor of Memphis

* Henry Loeb

* v
* t
* e

Civil Rights Movement in Tennessee

City of Clinton

* McSwain v. Co. Board of Ed. of Anderson Co., Tenn.
* Clinton High School desegregation crisis
* Clinton High School bombing

City of Memphis

* Memphis sit-ins
* Watson v. City of Memphis
* Memphis sanitation strike
* Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

City of Nashville

* Kelly v. Board of Education
* Hattie Cotton Elementary School bombing
* Nashville sit-ins
* Nashville Student Movement
* Z. Alexander Looby residence bombing

Other localities

* Tent City
* Chattanooga sit-ins
* Knoxville sit-ins

* v
* t
* e

Sanitation strikes

* Memphis 1968
* St. Petersburg 1968
* Charleston 1969
* Atlanta 1977
* Atlanta 2018

The Memphis sanitation strike began on February 12, 1968, in response to the deaths of sanitation workers Echol Cole and Robert Walker.[1][2]  The deaths served as a breaking point for more than 1,300 African American men from the Memphis Department of Public Works as they demanded higher wages, time and a half overtime, dues check-off, safety measures, and pay for the rainy days when they were told to go home.[2]

The Memphis sanitation strike was led by T.O. Jones and had the support of Jerry Wurf, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).[3][4][2]  The AFSCME was chartered in 1964 by the state; the city of Memphis refused to recognize it.

Mayor Henry Loeb refused to recognize the strike and rejected the City Council vote, insisting that only he possessed the power to recognize the union.[1][4][5] The Memphis sanitation strike prompted Martin Luther King Jr.'s presence, where he famously gave the "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech a day before his assassination.

## Background

[edit]

The city of Memphis had a long history of segregation and unfair treatment for Black residents. The influential politician E. H. Crump had created a city police force, much of it culled from the Ku Klux Klan, that acted violently toward the Black population and maintained Jim Crow.[citation needed] Black people were excluded from unions and paid much less than Whites—conditions which persisted and sometimes worsened in the first half of the 20th century.[6]

During the New Deal, Black people were able to organize as part of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, a group which Crump called communist "nigger unionism."[7] However, organized Black labor was set back by anti-communist fear after World War II. Civil rights and unionism in Memphis were thus heavily stifled all through the 1950s.[6]

The civil rights struggle was renewed in the 1960s, starting with desegregation sit-ins in the summer of 1960. The NAACP and SCLC were particularly active in Memphis during this period.[8]

Memphis sanitation workers were mostly Black. They enjoyed few of the protections that other workers had; their pay was low and they could be fired (usually by White supervisors) without warning. In 1960 the average sanitation worker in Memphis earned $0.94–$1.14 an hour, however in 1968 sanitation laborers earned $1.60 an hour and garbage truck drivers earned $1.90 an hour ($14 and $17 respectively in 2024 dollars).[9] In addition to their sanitation work, often including unpaid overtime, many worked other jobs or appealed to welfare and public housing.[10]

### Union activities

[edit]

In the early 1960s, Black sanitation workers united together to gain better wages and working conditions, fighting the racial discrimination in the Memphis Public Works Department. The first attempt to strike was in 1963, but it failed because there was inadequate organization. Many Black people were afraid to unionize due to the fear of persecution, which was justified in 1963, when 33 sanitation workers were fired immediately after attending an organizing meeting.[2] In November 1964, Local 1733 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) was successfully formed by T.O. Jones.[2] However, the city officials refused to recognize the union. In 1966, the union attempted another strike, but it was thwarted before it began when the city prepared strikebreakers and threatened to jail leaders.[10] The failure of the strike was largely due to the lack of support of Memphis’ religious community or middle class.[2]

## Early course of the strike

[edit]

At the end of 1967, Henry Loeb was elected as mayor against the opposition of Memphis's Black community. Loeb had served previously as the head of the sanitation division (as the elected Public Works Commissioner), and during his tenure oversaw grueling work conditions — including no city-issued uniforms, no restrooms, and no grievance procedure for the numerous occasions on which they were underpaid.[11]

Upon taking office, Loeb increased regulations on the city's workers and appointed Charles Blackburn as the Public Works Commissioner. Loeb ordered Jones and the union to deal with Blackburn; Blackburn said he had no authority to change the city's policies.[12]

On February 1, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, two sanitation workers,[13] were crushed to death in a garbage compactor where they were taking shelter from the rain. Two other men had died this way in 1964, but the city refused to replace the defective equipment. Local 1733 held a strike meeting on February 11 where over 400 workers explained that the city refused to provide decent wages and working conditions. The workers wanted immediate action but the city refused. The next day fewer than 200 employees showed up for work, and only 38 of the 108 garbage trucks continued to move.[12]

On Monday February 12, 1968, 930 of 1100 sanitation workers did not show up for work, including 214 of 230 sewer drainage workers.  Elmore Nickelberry, who was one of the strikers during this time speaks of Mayor Loeb and how it was impossible to negotiate with him, due to him being a "stubborn man".  Ben Jones, another striker with 43 years on the job, spoke of the conditions that all sanitation workers had to deal with, including how heavy all the garbage bins were and how they would leak all over them. They would end up at the end of the day smelling real bad when they would return to department headquarters and would go home to families who did not want to be around them.  As they would march down Main St., looters would ransack stores and tear gas was thrown at them, stated Rev. Leslie Moore.  Moore also speaks of the song they would sing titled, "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around", as they would march.[14][15] Some of those who did show up walked off when they found out about the apparent strike. Mayor Loeb, infuriated, refused to meet with the strikers.[12] The workers marched from their union hall to a meeting at the City Council chamber; there, they were met with 40–50 police officers. Loeb led the workers to a nearby auditorium, where he asked them to return to work. At one point, Loeb grabbed the microphone from AFSCME organizer Bill Lucy and shouted for the strikers to "go back to work!". The crowd responded with laughter and boos. Loeb then observed and spoke, "I have sat here and taken quite a bit of abuse and I do not appreciate it, and I have not given any abuse back, your jobs are important and I promise you the garbage is going to be picked up, bet on it."  Thereupon the mayor stormed out of the room.[16]

By February 15, there was 10,000 tons of noticeable piled up trash, and Loeb began to hire strikebreakers. These individuals were White and traveled with police escorts. They were not well received by the strikers, and the strikers assaulted the strikebreakers in some cases.[17][18]

On February 18, AFSCME International President Jerry Wurf arrives in Memphis, exclaiming that the strike will only end when the workers’ demands are met.[5] Wurf worked with national union representative P.J. Ciampa and local union leaders to edit the strikers' list of demands.  The revised version of demands included 10% wage increase, a grievance procedure, fair promotion policies, sick leave, pension programs, health insurance, payroll deduction of union dues, and union recognition through a written contract.[2] Mayor Loeb continued to refuse union recognition and dues withdrawn from wages because he argued that AFSCME officials only wanted to fill their pockets with the hard-earned money of local Memphians. Loeb believed that he was the sanitation workers' keeper and he would not abandon his "moral obligation" to protect them from union officials.[2] Local Black leaders and sanitation workers saw this "rhetoric smacked of paternalism reminiscent of slavery."[2] The sanitation workers were men and were more than capable of making their own decisions.

By February 21, the sanitation workers established a daily routine of meeting at noon with nearly a thousand strikers and then marching from Clayborn Temple to downtown. On February 22, workers and their supporters performed a sit in at city hall where they pressured the City Council to recognize their union and recommend wages to increase. The mayor rejected the request.[19] The first large-scale protest of Loeb's policies came on February 23. It was given the moniker "mini riot" after it turned violent. Gwen Robinson Awsumb, the city council liaison to the mayor, accused Loeb of deliberately impeding the council's progress in resolving the strike.[20] The marchers faced police brutality in the forms of mace, tear gas, and billy clubs. On February 24, while addressing the strikers after a "police assault" on their protests, Reverend James Lawson said, "For at the heart of racism is the idea that a man is not a man, that a person is not a person. You are human beings. You are men. You deserve dignity." Rev. Lawson's comments embody the message behind the iconic placards from the sanitation workers' strike, "I Am A Man".

On the evening of February 26, Clayborn Temple held over a thousand supporters of the movement. Reverend Ralph Jackson charged the crowd to not rest until "justice and jobs" prevailed for all Black Americans. That night they raised $1,600 to support the Movement. Rev. Jackson declared further that once the immediate demands of the strikers were met, the movement would focus on ending police brutality, as well as improving housing and education across the city for Black Memphians.[19]

> Our Henry, who art in City Hall,
>  Hard-headed be thy name.
>  Thy kingdom C.O.M.E.
>  Our will be done,
>  In Memphis, as it is in heaven.
>  Give us this day our Dues Checkoff,
>  And forgive us our boycott,
>  As we forgive those who spray MACE against us.
>  And lead us not into shame,
>  But deliver us from LOEB!
>  For OURS is justice, jobs, and dignity,
>  Forever and ever. Amen. FREEDOM!

> — "Sanitation Workers' Prayer" recited by Reverend Malcolm Blackburn[19]

National civil rights leaders including Roy Wilkins, Bayard Rustin, and James Lawson came to Memphis to rally the sanitation workers.[4] On March 18, Martin Luther King Jr. came to Memphis to praise a 25,000 crowd of labor and civil right activists for their unity stating, "You are demonstrating that we can stick together. You are demonstrating that we are all tied in a single garment of destiny, and that if one Black person suffers, if one Black person is down, we are all down."[1] King encouraged the group to continue to support the sanitation strike by enacting a citywide work stoppage. King promised to return to Memphis on March 22 to lead a protest through the city. On March 22, a massive snowstorm hit Memphis, causing the organizers to reschedule the march for March 28.[1]

## March 28 riot and police shooting of Larry Payne

[edit]

Further information: Killing of Larry Payne

On March 28, King and Reverend Lawson led strikers and supporters in a march in downtown Memphis. City officials estimated that 22,000 students skipped school to participate in the march. King arrived late to find a massive crowd on the brink of chaos, causing Lawson and King to call off the demonstration as violence erupted.[1] After peacefully marching for several blocks, singing "We Shall Overcome", Black armed men with iron pipes and bricks, and carrying signs, began smashing windows and looting along the stores. Police immediately reacted to the riot, moving into the crowd with nightsticks, mace, teargas, and gunfire. They arrested 280 individuals and 60 were reported injured, most of them Black. Lawson told the demonstration participants to return to Clayborn Temple. The police followed the crowd back to the church where they released tear gas and clubbed people.[1] In the midst of the chaos, police officer Leslie Dean Jones shot and killed sixteen-year-old Larry Payne.[18] Witnesses said Payne had his hands raised as the officer pressed a shotgun to Payne's stomach and fired it'[21] in later years, federal investigations questioned the accuracy of this claim.[22][23] That same night Loeb declared martial law and authorized a 7 pm curfew, bringing about 4000 National Guardsmen.[24]

On April 2, Payne's funeral was held in Clayborn Temple. Despite police pressure to have a private closed-casket funeral in their home, the family held the funeral at Clayborn and had an open casket. Following the funeral, the sanitation workers marched peacefully downtown.[19]

### Media coverage

[edit]

The local news media were generally favorable to Loeb, portraying union leaders (and later Martin Luther King Jr.) as meddling outsiders. The Commercial Appeal wrote editorials (and published cartoons) praising the mayor for his toughness.[25] Newspapers and television stations generally portrayed the mayor as calm and reasonable, and the protesters and organizers as unruly and disorganized.[17]

The Tri-State Defender, an African American newspaper, and The Sou'wester, a local college newspaper, reported the events of the strike from the sanitation workers' perspective. These publications emphasized the brutality of the police reactions to the protestors.[26]

## Roles of the union

[edit]

Membership in Local 1733 increased substantially during the course of the strike, more than doubling in the first few days.[12] Its relationship with other unions was complex.

### National leadership

[edit]

The AFSCME leadership in Washington was initially upset to learn of the strike, which they thought would not succeed. P. J. Ciampa, a field organizer for the AFL–CIO, reportedly reacted to news of the strike saying, "Good God Almighty, I need a strike in Memphis like I need another hole in the head!" However, both AFSCME and the AFL–CIO sent representatives to Memphis; these organizers came to support the strike upon recognizing the determination of the workers.[12]

Jones, Lucy, Ciampa, and other union leaders, asked the striking workers to focus on labor solidarity and downplay racism. The workers refused.[12] AFSCME, especially its Local 1733, played a crucial role in supporting the Memphis sanitation workers during their 1968 strike. The union helped the workers organize their demands for fair wages, safer working conditions, and respect. They also brought national attention to the strike by connecting it to larger civil rights and labor issues. Beyond advocacy, AFSCME provided practical support, including legal aid for workers arrested during protests and financial assistance for their families, ensuring they could endure the long strike. The union also applied significant political and social pressure on the city of Memphis to recognize them as the workers’ official bargaining representative. A major turning point came when AFSCME and local leaders involved Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose presence and famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech gave the movement national significance, highlighting the deep connection between labor rights and civil rights

### Local unions

[edit]

During the strike, Local 1733 received direct support from URW Local 186. Local 186 had the largest Black membership in Memphis, and allowed the strikers to use their union hall for meetings.[12] Most White union leaders in Memphis expressed concern about race riots. Tommy Powell, president of the Memphis Labor Council, was one of few local White advocates.[17]

## End of the strike

[edit]

On April 3, King returned to Memphis where he famously gave his "I've been to the mountaintop" speech.[5]

> "I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land! And so I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!"

> — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

President Obama met former members of the strike in 2011

King's assassination (April 4, 1968) intensified the strike. Mayor Loeb and others feared rioting, which had already begun in Washington, D.C., Federal officials, including Attorney General Ramsey Clark, urged Loeb to make concessions to the strikers in order to avoid violence. Loeb refused.[27] On April 8, a completely silent march with the SCLC, Coretta Scott King, and UAW president Walter Reuther attracted 42,000 participants.[4][28][29] Reuther wrote a check for $50,000 to the striking sanitation workers, the largest contribution from any outside source.[29] The strike ended on April 16, 1968, with a settlement that included union recognition and wage increases, although additional strikes had to be threatened to force the City of Memphis to honor its agreements. The period was a turning point for Black activism and union activity in Memphis.[28]

## Legacy

[edit]

In July 2017, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland announced that the city would offer $50,000 in tax-free grants to the 14 surviving 1968 sanitation strikers, who were either still on payroll to maintain standard of living or could not retire in relative comfort as they had to forgo pension and thus receiving a small Social Security check monthly.[30]

In October 2017, Baxter Leach represented the sanitation strikers at the National Civil Rights Museum Freedom Awards.[31] Leach was one of the original sanitation workers who participated in the Memphis sanitation strike and served as the public face of the surviving sanitation workers.[32][33]

In 2018, Leach along with the other surviving sanitation strikers was presented with the NAACP Vanguard Award.[34] After Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, the Memphis sanitation workers' strike went from being a local labor fight to a national issue. This was because King was dedicated to giving sanitation workers better working conditions and more respect. Many people felt terrible about his death, which led to more support for the strike from a wide range of groups, including community and church leaders, local and national labor groups, and regular people. Even groups that weren't active before, like white religious leaders and the business community in Memphis, spoke out in favor of a solution. In response to the shock and interest across the country, the U.S. government sent Undersecretary of Labor James Reynolds to mediate on behalf of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Reynolds brought important resources and pressure to the table, which eventually led local leaders to come to an agreement. King's death showed how powerful his moral and symbolic leadership was. Even after he died, it continued to bring people together in the civil rights movement and help heal social wounds. Aside from the direct effects, Memphis business leaders, worried about the city's reputation, put even more pressure on officials to end the strike quickly. They knew that a prolonged conflict would hurt the city's reputation and economy. King's legacy lived on through these things, making civil rights efforts stronger and showing how a leader's influence can last and shape social justice campaigns long after they are gone.

## See also

[edit]

* Labor Hall of Honor
* List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States
* St. Petersburg sanitation strike of 1968
* Charleston sanitation strike of 1969
* 1960s portal

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e f "Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike", King Encyclopedia, Stanford University, June 2, 2017, archived from the original on November 28, 2019
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Estes, Steve (2000). ""I am a Man!": Race, Masculinity, and the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike". Labor History. 41 (2): 153–170\. doi:10.1080/00236560050009914. PMID 18041164. S2CID 32680284.
3. ^ "1968 Memphis Sanitation Strikers Inducted Into Labor Hall Of Fame". Dclabor.org. May 2, 2011. Archived from the original on September 10, 2012. Retrieved November 8, 2013.
4. ^ a b c d Navarro, Kylin; Rennebohm, Max (September 12, 2010). "Memphis, Tennessee, sanitation workers strike, 1968". Global Nonviolent Action Database. Swarthmore College. Archived from the original on July 7, 2012. Retrieved July 19, 2012.
5. ^ a b c "Timeline of Events Surrounding the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers' Strike · HERB: Resources for Teachers". herb.ashp.cuny.edu. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
6. ^ a b Honey, Michael K. (2007). "A Plantation in the City". Going down Jericho Road the Memphis strike, Martin Luther King's last campaign (1. ed.). New York [u.a.]: Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-04339-6. "The mix of segregation, low wages, anti-union sentiment, and machine politics in Memphis created a particularly deadly legacy for public sector employees."
7. ^ Biles, Roger (September 1, 1984). "Ed crump versus the unions: The labor movement in Memphis during the 1930s". Labor History. 25 (4): 533–552\. doi:10.1080/00236568408584775.
8. ^ Honey, Michael K. (2007). "Dr. King, Labor, and the Civil Rights Movement". Going down Jericho Road the Memphis strike, Martin Luther King's last campaign. New York [u.a.]: Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-04339-6. "On February 1, the first lunch-counter 'sit-ins' began in Greensboro, North Carolina; weeks later, in Memphis, a handful of black students followed their example, sitting in and getting arrested for breaking the segregation laws at the city's segregated public libraries."
9. ^ Honey, Michael (2007). Going Down Jericho Road. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company. p. 59\. ISBN 978-0-393-04339-6.
10. ^ a b Honey, Michael K. (2007). "Struggles of the Working Poor". Going down Jericho Road the Memphis strike, Martin Luther King's last campaign (1 ed.). New York: Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-04339-6.
11. ^ "The Accident on a Garbage Truck That Led to the Death of Martin Luther King, Jr". Southern Hollows podcast. Retrieved June 3, 2018.
12. ^ a b c d e f g Honey, Michael K. (2007). "On Strike for Respect". Going down Jericho Road the Memphis strike, Martin Luther King's last campaign (1 ed.). New York: Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-04339-6.
13. ^ "1968 AFSCME Memphis Sanitation Workers' Strike Chronology". AFSCME Local 1733 pamphlet. 1968. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved February 28, 2018.
14. ^ "Memphis Sanitation Workers Remember the 1968 Strike, 40 years later". The Commercial Appeal. February 17, 2008. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved October 15, 2020 – via Youtube.
15. ^ Honey, Michael (2008). Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. p. 105.
16. ^ Honey, Michael K. (2008). Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign. New York: W.W.Norton & Co. p. 119.
17. ^ a b c Honey, Michael K. (2007). "Hambone's Meditations: The Failure of Community". Going down Jericho Road: The Memphis strike, Martin Luther King's last campaign (1st ed.). New York: Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-04339-6.
18. ^ a b Risen, Clay (2009). "King, Johnson, and The Terrible, Glorious Thirty-First Day of March". A nation on fire: America in the wake of the King assassination. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-17710-5.
19. ^ a b c d Honey, Michael K. (2007). Going Down Jericho Road. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-04339-6.
20. ^ Little, Kimberly (2009). You Must Be from the North: Southern White Women in the Memphis Civil Rights Movement (1 ed.). Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. p. 67-68. ISBN 9781604733518.
21. ^ "Larry Payne Notice to Close File". U.S. Department of Justice. April 3, 2017. Retrieved April 4, 2017.
22. ^ "Larry Payne: Un(re)solved". Frontline. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
23. ^ Dobinski, Karla (April 18, 2023). "Larry Payne - Notice to Close File". U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Retrieved November 9, 2023.
24. ^ "When MLK Was Killed, He Was In Memphis Fighting For Economic Justice". NPR.org. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
25. ^ Atkins, Joseph B. (2008). "Labor, civil rights, and Memphis". Covering for the bosses : labor and the Southern press. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781934110805. Archived from the original on May 7, 2016. "Like Memphis itself, the editors at the Commercial Appeal and Press-Scimitar felt they had kept their heads largely above the fray during the civil rights battles across the South in the early to mid-1960s, particularly in comparison to the blatantly racist and rabble-rousing histrionics in the two majors newspapers of Mississippi, the Clarion-Ledger and the Jackson Daily News. ... Yet the sanitation strike of 1968 and Martin Luther King Jr.'s involvement proved to many black Memphians that the newspapers weren't that different from their sister papers in Mississippi and elsewhere in the South. Blacks picketed both newspapers within a week after the end of the sanitation strike to protest the coverage."
26. ^ "Law Officers Lit Cauldron" (PDF). The Sou'wester. April 3, 1968. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 22, 2016 – via DLynx.
27. ^ Risen, Clay (2009). "April 5: 'Any Man's Death Diminishes Me'". A nation on fire : America in the wake of the King assassination. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-17710-5.
28. ^ a b Honey, Michael (December 25, 2009). "Memphis Sanitation Strike". Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture. Tennessee Historical Society. Archived from the original on February 6, 2012. Retrieved July 19, 2012.
29. ^ a b "Reuther, Walter Philip". The Martin Luther King Jr., Research and Education Institute. Stanford University. June 21, 2017. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
30. ^ Henry, Wiley (August 10, 2017). "Memphis Compensates Sanitation Workers". The Tennessee Tribune. Archived from the original on August 27, 2019. Retrieved August 27, 2019.
31. ^ Beifuss, John (October 18, 2017). "Dr. Martin Luther King remembered as National Civil Rights Museum Freedom Awards go to both the humble and the celebrated". Commercial Appeal. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
32. ^ White, Erin (January 5, 2018). "THE LAST SURVIVORS OF THE 1968 MEMPHIS SANITATION WORKERS STRIKE ARE FEATURED IN THIS STRIKING PHOTO SERIES". Afropunk. Retrieved August 27, 2019.
33. ^ Chaney, Kim (August 27, 2019). "Baxter Leach, one of the 1968 sanitation workers who sparked a movement in Memphis, has died". Archived from the original on August 28, 2019. Retrieved August 27, 2019.
34. ^ Neely, Tiffany (January 9, 2018). "Sanitation strikers receive NAACP Vanguard Award". WMC Action News 5. Retrieved August 28, 2019.

## Bibliography

[edit]

* Honey, Michael K. (2007). Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393043396.

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Memphis sanitation strike.

* Strike-related photos, audio, and documents from the AFSCME Archives. Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs. Wayne State University.
* Web Exhibit on the strike from the AFSCME Archives. Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs. Wayne State University. *King's Unfinished Struggle, at Socialist Worker website
* Memphis Sanitation Worker's Strike, at Stanford's KingPapers website
* Labor Rights are Human Rights, from Michael Honey, a professor of History
* The Last Wish of MLK, from NY Times
* The American Prospect explains why MLK was in Memphis
* AFSCME remembers the historical strike
* AFSCME provides a time-line of the relevant events
* The Accident on a Garbage Truck That Led to the Death of Martin Luther King, Jr., episode of the Southern Hollows podcast
* Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike, Civil Rights Digital Library.

* v
* t
* e

Civil rights movement (1954–1968)

Events
(timeline)|

| Prior to 1954|

* Journey of Reconciliation
* Executive Order 9981
* Murders of Harry and Harriette Moore
* Sweatt v. Painter (1950)
* McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (1950)
* Baton Rouge bus boycott

|

1954–1959|

* Brown v. Board of Education
* Bolling v. Sharpe
* Briggs v. Elliott
* Davis v. Prince Edward County
* Gebhart v. Belton
* Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company
* Emmett Till
* Montgomery bus boycott
* Browder v. Gayle
* Tallahassee bus boycott
* Mansfield school desegregation
* 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom
* "Give Us the Ballot"
* Royal Ice Cream sit-in
* Little Rock Nine
* Cooper v. Aaron
* Civil Rights Act of 1957
* Ministers' Manifesto
* Katz Drug Store sit-in
* Kissing Case
* Biloxi wade-ins

1960–1963|

* New Year's Day March
* Sit-in movement
* Greensboro sit-ins
* Nashville sit-ins
* Sibley Commission
* Atlanta sit-ins
* Savannah Protest Movement
* Greenville Eight
* Civil Rights Act of 1960
* Ax Handle Saturday
* New Orleans school desegregation
* Gomillion v. Lightfoot
* Boynton v. Virginia
* University of Georgia desegregation riot
* Rock Hill sit-ins
* Robert F. Kennedy's Law Day Address
* Freedom Rides
* Anniston and Birmingham bus attacks
* Garner v. Louisiana
* Albany Movement
* Cambridge movement
* University of Chicago sit-ins
* "Second Emancipation Proclamation"
* Meredith enrollment, Ole Miss riot
* Atlanta's Berlin Wall
* "Segregation now, segregation forever"
* Stand in the Schoolhouse Door
* 1963 Birmingham campaign
* Letter from Birmingham Jail
* Children's Crusade
* Birmingham riot
* 16th Street Baptist Church bombing
* John F. Kennedy's speech to the nation on Civil Rights
* Detroit Walk to Freedom
* March on Washington
* "I Have a Dream"
* Big Six
* St. Augustine movement

1964–1968|

* Twenty-fourth Amendment
* Chester school protests
* Bloody Tuesday
* 1964 Monson Motor Lodge protests
* Freedom Summer
* workers' murders
* Civil Rights Act of 1964
* Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States
* Katzenbach v. McClung
* 1964–1965 Scripto strike
* 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches
* "How Long, Not Long"
* SCOPE Project
* Voting Rights Act of 1965
* Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections
* March Against Fear
* White House Conference on Civil Rights
* Chicago Freedom Movement/Chicago open housing movement
* Loving v. Virginia
* Memphis sanitation strike
* King assassination
* funeral
* riots
* Civil Rights Act of 1968
* Poor People's Campaign
* Green v. County School Board of New Kent County
* Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co.
* 1968 Olympics Black Power salute

Activist
groups|

* Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights
* American Friends Service Committee
* Atlanta Negro Voters League
* Atlanta Student Movement
* Black Panther Party
* Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
* Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
* Committee for Freedom Now
* Committee on Appeal for Human Rights
* An Appeal for Human Rights
* Council for United Civil Rights Leadership
* Council of Federated Organizations
* Dallas County Voters League
* Deacons for Defense and Justice
* Georgia Council on Human Relations
* Highlander Folk School
* Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
* Lowndes County Freedom Organization
* Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
* Montgomery Improvement Association
* NAACP
* Youth Council
* Nashville Student Movement
* Nation of Islam
* Northern Student Movement
* National Council of Negro Women
* National Urban League
* Operation Breadbasket
* Regional Council of Negro Leadership
* Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
* Southern Regional Council
* Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
* The Freedom Singers
* United Auto Workers (UAW)
* Wednesdays in Mississippi
* Women's Political Council

Activists|

* Juanita Abernathy
* Ralph Abernathy
* Victoria Gray Adams
* Zev Aelony
* Mathew Ahmann
* Muhammad Ali
* William G. Anderson
* Gwendolyn Armstrong
* Arnold Aronson
* Ella Baker
* James Baldwin
* Marion Barry
* Daisy Bates
* Harry Belafonte
* James Bevel
* Claude Black
* Gloria Blackwell
* Randolph Blackwell
* Unita Blackwell
* Ezell Blair Jr.
* Joanne Bland
* Julian Bond
* Joseph E. Boone
* William Holmes Borders
* Amelia Boynton
* Bruce Boynton
* Raylawni Branch
* Stanley Branche
* Ruby Bridges
* Aurelia Browder
* H. Rap Brown
* Ralph Bunche
* John H. Calhoun
* Guy Carawan
* Stokely Carmichael
* Johnnie Carr
* James Chaney
* J. L. Chestnut
* Shirley Chisholm
* Colia Lafayette Clark
* Ramsey Clark
* Septima Clark
* Xernona Clayton
* Eldridge Cleaver
* Kathleen Cleaver
* Josephine Dobbs Clement
* Charles E. Cobb Jr.
* Annie Lee Cooper
* Dorothy Cotton
* Claudette Colvin
* Vernon Dahmer
* Jonathan Daniels
* Abraham Lincoln Davis
* Angela Davis
* Joseph DeLaine
* Dave Dennis
* Annie Bell Robinson Devine
* John Wesley Dobbs
* Patricia Stephens Due
* Joseph Ellwanger
* Charles Evers
* Medgar Evers
* Myrlie Evers-Williams
* Chuck Fager
* James Farmer
* Walter Fauntroy
* James Forman
* Marie Foster
* Golden Frinks
* Andrew Goodman
* Robert Graetz
* Fred Gray
* Jack Greenberg
* Dick Gregory
* Lawrence Guyot
* Prathia Hall
* Fannie Lou Hamer
* Fred Hampton
* William E. Harbour
* Vincent Harding
* Dorothy Height
* Audrey Faye Hendricks
* Lola Hendricks
* Aaron Henry
* Oliver Hill
* Donald L. Hollowell
* James Hood
* Myles Horton
* Zilphia Horton
* T. R. M. Howard
* Ruby Hurley
* Cecil Ivory
* Jesse Jackson
* Jimmie Lee Jackson
* Richie Jean Jackson
* T. J. Jemison
* Esau Jenkins
* Barbara Rose Johns
* Vernon Johns
* Frank Minis Johnson
* Clarence Jones
* J. Charles Jones
* Matthew Jones
* Vernon Jordan
* Tom Kahn
* Clyde Kennard
* A. D. King
* C.B. King
* Coretta Scott King
* Martin Luther King Jr.
* Martin Luther King Sr.
* Bernard Lafayette
* James Lawson
* Bernard Lee
* Sanford R. Leigh
* Jim Letherer
* Stanley Levison
* John Lewis
* Viola Liuzzo
* Z. Alexander Looby
* Joseph Lowery
* Clara Luper
* Danny Lyon
* Malcolm X
* Mae Mallory
* Vivian Malone
* Bob Mants
* Thurgood Marshall
* Benjamin Mays
* Franklin McCain
* Charles McDew
* Ralph McGill
* Floyd McKissick
* Joseph McNeil
* James Meredith
* William Ming
* Jack Minnis
* Amzie Moore
* Cecil B. Moore
* Douglas E. Moore
* Harriette Moore
* Harry T. Moore
* Queen Mother Moore
* William Lewis Moore
* Irene Morgan
* Bob Moses
* William Moyer
* Elijah Muhammad
* Diane Nash
* Charles Neblett
* Huey P. Newton
* Edgar Nixon
* Jack O'Dell
* James Orange
* Rosa Parks
* James Peck
* Charles Person
* Homer Plessy
* Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
* Fay Bellamy Powell
* Rodney N. Powell
* Al Raby
* Lincoln Ragsdale
* A. Philip Randolph
* George Raymond
* George Raymond Jr.
* Bernice Johnson Reagon
* Cordell Reagon
* James Reeb
* Frederick D. Reese
* Walter Reuther
* Gloria Richardson
* David Richmond
* Bernice Robinson
* Jo Ann Robinson
* Angela Russell
* Bayard Rustin
* Bernie Sanders
* Michael Schwerner
* Bobby Seale
* Pete Seeger
* Cleveland Sellers
* Charles Sherrod
* Alexander D. Shimkin
* Fred Shuttlesworth
* Modjeska Monteith Simkins
* Glenn E. Smiley
* A. Maceo Smith
* Kelly Miller Smith
* Mary Louise Smith
* Maxine Smith
* Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson
* Charles Kenzie Steele
* Hank Thomas
* Dorothy Tillman
* A. P. Tureaud
* Hartman Turnbow
* Albert Turner
* C. T. Vivian
* A. T. Walden
* Wyatt Tee Walker
* Hollis Watkins
* Walter Francis White
* Roy Wilkins
* Hosea Williams
* Kale Williams
* Robert F. Williams
* Q. V. Williamson
* Andrew Young
* Whitney Young
* Sammy Younge Jr.
* Bob Zellner
* James Zwerg

By region|

* Omaha, Nebraska
* South Carolina

Movement
songs|

* "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round"
* "If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus"
* "Kumbaya"
* "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize"
* "Oh, Freedom"
* "This Little Light of Mine"
* "We Shall Not Be Moved"
* "We Shall Overcome"
* "Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind Stayed On Freedom)"

Influences|

* Nonviolence
* Padayatra
* Sermon on the Mount
* Mahatma Gandhi
* Ahimsa
* Satyagraha
* The Kingdom of God Is Within You
* Frederick Douglass
* W. E. B. Du Bois
* Mary McLeod Bethune

Related|

* Lyndon B. Johnson
* Jim Crow laws
* Lynching in the United States
* Plessy v. Ferguson
* Separate but equal
* Buchanan v. Warley
* Hocutt v. Wilson
* Sweatt v. Painter
* Hernandez v. Texas
* Loving v. Virginia
* African-American women in the movement
* Jews in the civil rights movement
* Fifth Circuit Four
* 16th Street Baptist Church
* Kelly Ingram Park
* A.G. Gaston Motel
* Bethel Baptist Church
* Brown Chapel
* Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
* Holt Street Baptist Church
* Edmund Pettus Bridge
* March on Washington Movement
* African-American churches attacked
* List of lynching victims in the United States
* Freedom Schools
* Freedom songs
* Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam
* "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence"
* Voter Education Project
* 1960s counterculture
* African American founding fathers of the United States
* Eyes on the Prize

Legacy|

* In popular culture
* Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
* Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument
* Civil Rights Memorial
* Civil Rights Movement Archive
* Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument
* Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument
* Freedom Rides Museum
* Freedom Riders National Monument
* King Center for Nonviolent Social Change
* Martin Luther King Jr. Day
* Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
* other King memorials
* Mississippi Civil Rights Museum
* National Civil Rights Museum
* National Voting Rights Museum
* St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument
* Olympic Black Power Statue

Noted
historians|

* Taylor Branch
* Clayborne Carson
* John Dittmer
* Michael Eric Dyson
* Chuck Fager
* Adam Fairclough
* David Garrow
* David Halberstam
* Vincent Harding
* Steven F. Lawson
* Doug McAdam
* Diane McWhorter
* Charles M. Payne
* Thomas E. Ricks
* Timothy Tyson
* Akinyele Umoja
* Movement photographers

Civil rights movement portal

* v
* t
* e

Martin Luther King Jr.

Speeches, writings, movements, and protests

| Speeches|

* "Give Us the Ballot" (1957)
* "I Have a Dream" (1963)
* "How Long, Not Long" (1965)
* "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" (1967)
* "I've Been to the Mountaintop" (1968)

|

Writings|

* Stride Toward Freedom (1958)
* "What Is Man?" (1959)
* "Second Emancipation Proclamation"
* Strength to Love (1963)
* "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (1963)
* Why We Can't Wait (1964)
* Conscience for Change (1967)
* Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)

Movements
and protests|

* Montgomery bus boycott (1955–1956)
* Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom (1957)
* Albany Movement (1961–1962)
* Birmingham campaign (1963)
* March on Washington (1963)
* St. Augustine movement (1963–1964)
* Selma to Montgomery marches (1965)
* Chicago Freedom Movement (1966)
* Mississippi March Against Fear (1966)
* Anti-Vietnam War movement (1967)
* Memphis sanitation strike (1968)
* Poor People's Campaign (1968)

Organizations|

* Montgomery Improvement Association
* Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

People

| Family|

* Coretta Scott King (wife)
* Yolanda King (daughter)
* Martin Luther King III (son)
* Dexter King (son)
* Bernice King (daughter)
* Martin Luther King Sr. (father)
* Alberta Williams King (mother)
* Christine King Farris (sister)
* A. D. King (brother)
* James Albert King (grandfather)
* Alveda King (niece)

|

Other
leaders|

* Ralph Abernathy (mentor, colleague)
* Ella Baker (colleague)
* James Bevel (strategist / colleague)
* Dorothy Cotton (colleague)
* Jesse Jackson (protégé)
* Bernard Lafayette (colleague)
* James Lawson (colleague)
* John Lewis (colleague)
* Joseph Lowery (colleague)
* Benjamin Mays (mentor)
* Diane Nash (colleague)
* James Orange (colleague)
* Bayard Rustin (advisor)
* Fred Shuttlesworth (colleague)
* C. T. Vivian (colleague)
* Wyatt Walker (colleague)
* Hosea Williams (colleague)
* Andrew Young (colleague)

Assassination

* Lorraine Motel (now National Civil Rights Museum)
* Riots
* Funeral
* James Earl Ray
* Jack Kershaw
* U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA)
* Martin Luther King Jr. Records Collection Act
* Loyd Jowers
* Trial
* Conspiracy theories
* Executive Order 14176

Media

| Film|

* King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis (1970 documentary)
* Our Friend, Martin (1999 animated)
* Boycott (2001 film)
* The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306 (2008 documentary)
* Selma (2014 film)
* All the Way (2016 film)
* King in the Wilderness (2018 documentary)
* MLK/FBI (2020 documentary)
* Rustin (2023 film)

|

Television|

* King (1978 miniseries)
* "The First Store" (The Jeffersons, 1980)
* "Great X-Pectations" (A Different World, 1993)
* "The Promised Land" (New York Undercover, 1997)
* Selma, Lord, Selma (1999)
* "Return of the King" (The Boondocks, 2006)
* Alpha Man: The Brotherhood of MLK (2011 documentary)
* Genius (MLK/X, 2024)

Plays|

* The Meeting (1987)
* The Mountaintop (2009)
* I Dream (2010)
* All the Way (2012)

Books|

* Stride Toward Freedom (1958)
* Bearing the Cross (1986)
* King: A Life (2023)

Illustrated|

* Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story (1957 comic book)

Music|

* "Abraham, Martin and John" (Dion)
* "March! For Martin Luther King" (John Fahey)
* "Martin Luther King's Dream" (Strawbs)
* "Happy Birthday" (Stevie Wonder)
* "Pride (In the Name of Love)" (U2)
* "MLK" (U2)
* "King Holiday" (King Dream Chorus and Holiday Crew)
* "By the Time I Get to Arizona" (Public Enemy)
* "Shed a Little Light" (James Taylor)
* "Up to the Mountain" (Patti Griffin)
* "Never Alone Martin" (Jason Upton)
* "Symphony of Brotherhood" (Miri Ben-Ari)
* Joseph Schwantner: New Morning for the World; Nicolas Flagello: The Passion of Martin Luther King (1995 album)
* "A Dream" (Common featuring will.i.am)
* "Glory" (Common and John Legend)

Related|

* Civil rights movement in popular culture
* Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. v. CBS, Inc.
* King v. Trustees of Boston Univ.

Related topics

| Memorials and
eponymous locations|

* Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
* National Historical Park
* King Center for Nonviolent Social Change
* Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
* National Civil Rights Museum
* U.S. Capitol Rotunda sculpture
* Oval Office bust
* Homage to King sculpture, Atlanta
* Hope Moving Forward statue, Atlanta
* Safe House Black History Museum
* Statues of Martin Luther King Jr.
* Atlanta
* Boston
* Denver
* Houston
* Jersey City
* Milwaukee
* Mexico City
* Newark
* Pueblo, Colorado
* Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, San Francisco
* Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial (Compton)
* Landmark for Peace Memorial, Indianapolis
* The Dream sculpture, Portland, Oregon
* Kennedy–King College
* Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, Washington, D.C.
* Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, San Jose
* Paris park
* Memorials to Martin Luther King Jr.
* King County, Washington
* Eponymous streets

|

Other topics|

* Martin Luther King Jr. Day
* passage
* Big Six
* African American founding fathers of the United States
* Authorship issues
* FBI–King suicide letter
* Martin Luther King Jr., A Current Analysis
* Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity
* Season for Nonviolence
* America in the King Years
* Civil rights movement in popular culture
* Lee–Jackson–King Day

* v
* t
* e

Protests of 1968

Movements|

* 1968–69 Japanese university protests
* Zenkyōtō
* 1968 movement in Italy
* 1968 movement in Pakistan
* Civil Rights Movement
* Anti-nuclear movement
* Black Consciousness Movement
* Black power movement
* Black Power Revolution
* Chicano Movement
* Cultural Revolution
* Gay liberation
* Hippie movement
* Human rights movement in the Soviet Union
* Mexican Movement of 1968
* Movement of 22 March
* Northern Ireland civil rights movement
* Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War
* Red Power movement
* Sexual revolution
* The Troubles
* West German student movement
* Women's liberation movement

Events|

* 1968 Democratic National Convention protests
* "The whole world is watching"
* 1968 Polish political crisis
* 1968 protests in Egypt
* 1968 student demonstrations in Yugoslavia
* 1968 Miami riot
* 1968 Red Square demonstration
* 1968 uprising in Senegal
* Båstad riots
* Battle of Valle Giulia
* Ceaușescu's speech of 21 August 1968
* Central Park be-ins
* Columbia University protests of 1968
* Delano grape strike
* East L.A. walkouts
* King assassination riots
* Mafeje affair
* March of the One Hundred Thousand
* May 1968 in France
* Memphis sanitation strike
* Miss America protest
* Occupation of the Student Union Building
* Poor People's Campaign
* Prague Spring
* Presidio mutiny
* Rodney riots
* Shinjuku riot
* Silence March
* Takeover of Vanha
* Third World Liberation Front strikes of 1968
* Tlatelolco massacre

Related|

* 1968 Summer Olympics
* Anti-capitalism
* Black power
* Counterculture of the 1960s
* Flower power
* Free love
* Hippie
* Antisemitism in Poland
* Hot Autumn
* New Left
* New social movements
* Racism in the United States
* School discipline
* Second-wave feminism
* Years of Lead (Italy)
* Morocco
* Segregation in Northern Ireland
* Student activism
* Vietnam War
* Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia

Authority control databases

National|

* United States
* Israel

Other|

* Yale LUX

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