I AM STORY

In the fifth episode of the I AM Story podcast, current labor leaders discuss how the lessons of the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike are as relevant today as they were 55 years ago.  

Whether it’s building resolve in the face of setbacks, understanding the power of non-violent civil disobedience, the timeless call for safety in the workplace, or how the “I AM A MAN” slogan applies to all workers seeking dignity on the job, I AM Story’s fifth episode is a must-listen for workers everywhere.  

Hear AFSCME President Lee Saunders bring together SEIU’s Mary Kay Henry, AFT’s Randi Weingarten and UNITE HERE’s D. Taylor, as they talk about what the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike means to them, and how they use the lessons of that historic struggle to fight for workers they represent. 

Episode 4 of the I AM STORY podcast looks at the impact the strike had on the lives of the people involved and the challenges workers have faced in the years since.

Seven weeks after the sanitation strike began, garbage was piling up and the city was feeling the pressure. The labor action was expanding into a mass community mobilization – with churches, student activists, and civil rights organizations and even outside agitators joining the fray. But the mayor and city council had stopped negotiating with the workers. And local media had turned their backs on the strike, ignoring the men’s struggle. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. returned to Memphis to lead a peaceful mass march. As events on the ground unfold, history is shaped, legacies are established, and a new path is forged. 

This episode features AFSCME President Lee Saunders, exclusive interviews with Martin Luther King III, AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Emeritus Bill Lucy, historian Michael Honey, Reverend James Lawson, photographer Richard Copley, local activist Joe Calhoun, AFSCME official P.J. Ciampa, sanitation worker Cleophus Smith and Jesse Jones (son of local union leader T.O. Jones), along with archival audio from Dr. King, Coretta Scott King and Reverend Ralph Jackson. 

In the wake of the deaths of Echol Cole and Robert Walker, 1,300 Memphis sanitation workers went on strike. The men were demanding safer working conditions and basic respect for the services they provided. But Mayor Henry Loeb dug in, refusing to recognize their union or even talk to the workers. When a peaceful demonstration elicits a violent response from Mayor Loeb’s police force, it becomes clear exactly what the strikers are up against. The city’s hostility brings local churches, students and civic leaders into the struggle. Rev. James Lawson, a leading advocate of nonviolent resistance, emerges as a chief strategist, organizing sit-ins, daily marches and arrests. And the greatest civil rights leader of the time, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., comes to Memphis to lend his voice to the fight.   

This episode features AFSCME President Lee Saunders, exclusive interviews with Rev. Lawson, AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Emeritus Bill Lucy and historian Michael Honey, along with archival audio from Dr. King, Rev. Gilbert Patterson, AFSCME official P.J. Ciampa, Ezekiel Bell, Roy Wilkins of the NAACP and Rev. William Maxwell Blackburn.  

In 1968, Memphis sanitation workers faced dangerous and degrading conditions on the job. The mayor showed the men no respect, paying them poverty wages and refusing to recognize their union. During a driving rainstorm on February 1, Robert Walker and Echol Cole were crushed to death as they sought shelter in the back of their sanitation truck, a horrific accident that was the result of shocking negligence by city leaders. That was the breaking point.

In 1968, Memphis sanitation workers went on strike – for dignity, for respect, for recognition of their basic humanity. Courageously, they declared: I AM A MAN. The strike would draw together the labor movement and the civil rights movement in a way that changed the course of history. The I AM STORY Podcast revisits this struggle, telling the story of this strike and everything that happened next.

Learn more at IAMSTORY.com 

In 1968, two Memphis sanitation workers, Robert Walker and Echol Cole, were crushed to death in the back of their truck, a horrific accident that was the result of shocking negligence by city leaders.  

The workers had raised a red flag that trucks in the fleet were unsafe. But the city didn’t recognize their union and had no incentive or inclination to make changes. 

This tragedy ignited one of the most courageous worker actions in American history: a two-month strike by the city’s entire sanitation workforce.  

The signs they carried said it all, four words so powerful in their simplicity: I AM A MAN. The strike drew the attention of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who would join the sanitation workers’ fight — in what would be his last campaign. 

This is the I AM Story Podcast. 

Learn more at IAMSTORY.com 

In 1968, sanitation workers in Memphis took a stand against degrading and deadly working conditions.  

They declared a strike that would lead to a movement that would shake the nation. 

The I AM STORY podcast tells the story of the sanitation workers who dared to declare: I AM A MAN. 

Learn more at http://www.IAMSTORY.com