Green, explores the racial and gender undertones of a Memphis sanitation strike slogan in 1968 – “I Am a Man.” Emerging from a history of enslavement, African-Americans learn that the civil rights movement didn’t guarantee complete freedom (Green 466). The city of Memphis officially unveiled its I Am A Man Plaza on Thursday next to Clayborn Temple, a key rallying point for the historic 1968 Memphis sanitation strike. Cole and Walker had taken shelter from rain in the back of their truck, when it malfunctioned and both men were crushed to death. Yet the city of Memphis expected garbage collectors to work long hours for meager wages and without overtime pay. Memphis was paying full-time employees a meager minimum wage, then just $1.60 an hour. The article, written by author and University of Texas assistant professor Laurie B. . When the city then refused to provide compensation to the deceased workers’ families, workers walked off the job in disgust. I AM A MAN. Film documenting the sanitation strike is projected upon the garbage truck. From the I Am A Man Exhibit Symposium. Hauling trash, sometimes in the pouring rain, was a taxing and dirty job. 50 years ago, Memphis sanitation workers went on strike. We've got some difficult days ahead.”, “By that time in his life, King was often depressed,” Sokol says. The weeks of strikes and protests are where the “I am a Man” campaign was born. On the evening of February 26, Clayborn Temple held over a thousand supporters of the movement. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. surrounded by leaders of the sanitation strike as he arrived to lead a march in support of the striking workers in Memphis on March 28, 1968. Richard L. Copley took this photograph in 1968 at the Memphis sanitation workers' strike -- the reason Martin Luther King Jr. was in Memphis on the day he was killed. “Class had always been an issue in the civil rights movement, but in the late '60s [it] was having to deal with it explicitly,” says Steve Estes, author of I Am a Man! When black sanitation workers in Memphis took to the streets in March 1968, they carried signs emblazoned with their rallying cry, “I AM A MAN.” Those words will be forever etched into the landscape of the Bluff City with the opening of the I AM A MAN Plaza near Clayborn Temple, the site from which those workers marched 50 years ago. Digitized August 2011. New to the exhibit is the Mountaintop Theatre, showing the powerful "Mountaintop" speech, the last one Dr. King gave the evening before he died. Office Products Hello, Sign in. … Two other men had died this way in 1964, but the city refused to replace the defective equipment. On April 3, King returned to Memphis and delivered his last speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” which foreshadowed his impending death. “I was in every march, all of ’em, with that sign: I AM A MAN,” recalls former sanitation worker Ozell Ueal. I AM A MAN: The Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike 1968 online exhibit lesson plan template and teaching resources. On March 28, 1968, King returned to Memphis to lead a march with Lawson in support of the strike. There are about 40 people at I Am a Man Plaza. Two Memphis Police cars are watching in the distance. The fatalities sparked outrage—workers had been lobbying the city in vain for properly functioning equipment. A protest is beginning at I Am A Man Plaza. I Am a Man | Teaching Tolerance Skip to main content Accessibility “He was often thinking about his own death. For More Information. Getty/The Daily Beast When the Reverend James Lawson shouted “ I am a man,” fifty years ago today, thousands of Memphis garbage strikers first echoed him—then millions of Americans did. A few days after King’s assassination, she and other leaders returned to Memphis’ streets to support the workers. 3-5 6-8 9-12. Richard L. Copley took this photograph in 1968 at the Memphis sanitation workers' strike -- the reason Martin Luther King Jr. was in Memphis on the day he was killed. "I AM A MAN" became the slogan of the Memphis Sanitation Strike and was derived from the ideals seen in the declaration of independence “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights." With the slogan, "I am a man," workers in Memphis sought financial justice in a strike that fatefully became Martin Luther King, Jr.'s final cause. The I AM A MAN program is currently looking for local teachers and educational professionals to serve as mentors and advisors for Scholars who begin Fall 2021. A couple of weeks before the strike, workers’ dissatisfaction reached new heights when two men, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, were gruesomely killed while on the job. Teach This in a Learning Plan. I Am a Man: Sanitation Workers Strike, Memphis, Tennessee, March 28th, 1968, Ernest Withers, 1968. Download premium images you can't get anywhere else. In 1968, Elmore Nickleberry stood among 1,300 other African-American men in Memphis who collectively asserted their right to be treated with dignity. Object Name poster referenced United States: Tennessee, Memphis Physical Description paper (overall material) white, red (overall color) Measurements overall: 28 in x 22 in; 71.12 cm x … “I was in every march, all of ’em, with that sign: I AM A MAN,” recalls former sanitation worker Ozell Ueal. To discuss male issues from a left-wing, egalitarian perspective. The National Civil Rights Museum is a member of, Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, Designated a World Peace Flame Monument Site, Member of the worldwide network of over 300 historic sites, National Civil Rights Museum • 450 Mulberry St. • Memphis, TN 38103 • (901) 521-9699, Artist Reception – SALVAGE: Reclaiming Memphis' Black Aesthetic. Well, I don't know what will happen now. Howard Greenberg Gallery. Andrew Withers says there were 4 Withers men capturing the historic “I Am a Man” march. Two Memphis Police cars are watching in the distance. Memphis’ Black leaders, led by the Reverend James Lawson, formed a coalition to support the strike. This poster was used during the Poor People’s Campaign in Washington, D.C., during summer 1968. 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