‘In the spring of 1968, African-American sanitation workers protested under the banner ‘I Am A Man’ demanding recognition as human beings and equitable treatment. Fifty years later, children are standing up for their rights under the banner ‘I Am A Child’. In June 2018, a photo shoot took place on the steps of the Immigration and Customs Enforcements building in New York City with children aged between 3-10 protesting the separation of immigrant families at the US border. The unfortunate parallel of the 1968 striking sanitation workers and children today, demonstrates a lack of compassion and dignity for our fellow human beings’. – Miriam Jordan, How and Why ‘Zero Tolerance’ is Splitting Up Immigrant Families – New York Times May 12, 2018.

Today we visited the site of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jnr. The Lorraine Hotel, Memphis. 

 

On January 15, 1929 Michael King, later known as Martin Luther King Jnr, was born at home in Atlanta Georgia. A highly educated man, and an ordained minister, he spent his life fighting and bringing attention to injustice, inequality, and poverty. It wasn’t just about the inequalities faced by African-American’s. On April 4, 1967 he delivered his Beyond Vietnam speech. He was struck by the gravity of violence experienced by people across the world.

In 1968 Dr Martin Luther King Jnr was in Memphis at the invitation of the Reverend James Lawson to demonstrate his unequivocal support of the sanitation strike. The evening before his death, he delivered one of his most powerful speeches, ‘The Mountaintop’ Speech.

Robert Walker and Ethol Cole had been crushed to death by faulty wires in their sanitation truck’s compactor. Walker, Cole and their African-American co-workers did not enjoy any of the benefits that we expect and receive today. They worked in unsanitary and unsafe conditions, with long hours, 80 hours per week at $1 per hour, the overtime of which was unpaid.

Their deaths were overshadowed by the birth of Lisa Marie Presley an hour later. The families of Walker and Coles eventually received $500 for their loss. Less than two weeks after the tragedy, Memphis Sanitation workers began what was to become a 65 day strike, determined to stay off the job until they received a decent living wage and safe working conditions. They also wanted their humanity and dignity recognised. The placards ‘I Am Man’ made their broader goal clear. This strike became one of the most pivotal moments in civil rights history. The Living Wage movement today references the sanitation workers concerns from 50 years ago. To be adequately compensated and respected for their contribution to society. 

Dr Martin Luther King Jnr, in Memphis to support the sanitation strike, stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in front of room 306 on the evening of April 4, 1968. At 6.01 pm he was struck down by a bullet and pronounced dead at 7.05pm. He was 39 years old. 

Inspired by Gandhi, Dr Martin Luther King Jnr used non violent civil disobedience to create change. Both Gandhi and Dr King are examples of the triumph of the human spirit where non-violence is the guiding light. 

After four hours at the museum we headed to Nashville. Today was intense, at times overwhelming and very emotional. I will never know why people have to be so cruel and so unkind to each other. Courage and the human spirit prevails.