Sanitation Strike and Assassination
Memphis Sanitation Strike and MLK Assassination
On February 1, 1968, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, two sanitation workers for the city of Memphis, were crushed to death in a garbage compactor while taking shelter from the rain. Their deaths and the unsafe conditions under which they had worked paved the way for the organization of the Sanitation Worker’s Strike in Memphis, Tennessee, and the “I AM A MAN” campaign. Reverend Lawson, then the pastor of Centenary United Methodist Church, invited Dr. King to Memphis to support the workers. After an initial visit in mid-March, Dr. King returned in early April, when he would give his last sermon “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” at the Bishop Charles Mason Temple. Early in the evening of April 4th Dr. King was shot and killed on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel by James Earl Ray. While a country mourned, the Sanitation Workers Strike continued until April 16th when an agreement was reached that guaranteed better working conditions and better wages for 1300 African American men who were employed to handle the garbage of the city of Memphis.
![[Armed National Guard and Sanitation Strike Protesters]](https://exhibitions.library.vanderbilt.edu/lawson/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2022/10/4-Photographs-Memphis-Strike-Box-134-folder-11-150-1500.jpg)
[Armed National Guard and Sanitation Strike Protesters]
Photograph Reproduction
Memphis, Tennessee, 1968
James M. Lawson, Jr. Papers
Vanderbilt University Special Collections
“Sanitation Workers’ Prayer”
Author unknown
Memphis, Tennessee, 1968
James M. Lawson, Jr. Papers
Vanderbilt University Special Collections
“March for Justice and Jobs”
Community on the Move for Equality
Memphis, Tennessee, 1968
James M. Lawson, Jr. Papers
Vanderbilt University Special Collections
![[Police Pass]](https://exhibitions.library.vanderbilt.edu/lawson/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2022/10/Police-Pass-Box-118-folder-15-150-1500.jpg)
[Police Pass]
Chief of Police, Memphis Police Department
March 29, 1968
James M. Lawson, Jr. Papers
Vanderbilt University Special Collections
![[I Am A Man Protest Campaign Sanitation Workers’ Strike]](https://exhibitions.library.vanderbilt.edu/lawson/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2022/10/Box-136-folder-6-02-150-1500.jpg)
[I Am A Man Protest Campaign Sanitation Workers’ Strike]
Photograph, 1968
Memphis, Tennessee
James M. Lawson, Jr. Papers
Vanderbilt University Special Collections
![[Jerry Wurf, Ralph Abernathy, and James Lawson in Solidarity for the Sanitation Workers’ Strike]](https://exhibitions.library.vanderbilt.edu/lawson/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2022/10/Box-136-folder-6-03-150-1500.jpg)
[Jerry Wurf, Ralph Abernathy, and James Lawson in Solidarity for the Sanitation Workers’ Strike]
Photograph, 1968
Memphis, Tennessee
James M. Lawson, Jr. Papers
Vanderbilt University Special Collections
![[James M. Lawson and NAACP Protester at the Sanitation Workers’ Strike]](https://exhibitions.library.vanderbilt.edu/lawson/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2022/10/Box-136-folder-6-01-150-1500.jpg)
[James M. Lawson and NAACP Protester at the Sanitation Workers’ Strike]
Photograph, 1968
Memphis, Tennessee
James M. Lawson, Jr. Papers
Vanderbilt University Special Collections
![[Stop Taking the Commercial Appeal and Press Scimitar]](https://exhibitions.library.vanderbilt.edu/lawson/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2022/10/MSS0626_Lawson_b118_f009_035-150-1500.jpg)
[Stop Taking the Commercial Appeal and Press Scimitar]
Photograph Reproduction
Memphis, Tennessee, 1968
James M. Lawson, Jr. Papers
Vanderbilt University Special Collections