Memphis labor march pays tribute to King
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Hundreds of union members and their supporters marched in Memphis on the 45th anniversary of the murder of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., calling for a new commitment to human-rights causes.
With the march and a dedication ceremony Thursday, they honored King and the sanitation workers strike that brought him to Memphis, where he was assassinated in 1968. In a light drizzle, more than 1,000 marchers wore T-shirts with union logos and held signs saying "We are Memphis" or bearing the slogan for the 1968 strike: "I am a man." Participants came from as far as Louisiana, California, and New York.
Surviving Memphis strikers Baxter Leach, Alvin Turner, and the Rev. Leslie Moore joined the marchers when they arrived at a rally at the National Civil Rights Museum, built on the site of the old Lorraine Motel where King was shot down.
Moore, 66, still drives a truck for the Memphis sanitation department. "Something lifted off of us when Dr. King came to Memphis," he said in an interview days ahead of Thursday's march. "Before he came, we had a hard time."
Speakers at the rally included Martin Luther King III and Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
City officials had begun the day by dedicating a section of Beale Street to the 1,300 sanitation workers who walked off their jobs in February 1968 after two garbage collectors were crushed to death in a malfunctioning truck. The strikers demanded - and eventually received - higher pay and safer working conditions. The street, named "1968 Strikers Lane," runs in front of the headquarters of AFSCME Local 1733.
King was standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel when he was killed by a rifle bullet on April 4, 1968. James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to the killing and got a 99-year sentence. He died in prison in 1998.
Speaking at the street dedication, King's son said that workers still face challenges and that his father's campaign for racial and social equality through nonviolent means still has meaning.
During the march, members of the local firefighters union chanted "Four point six!" for the 4.6 percent pay cut they were forced to take in a city cost-cutting move. They are demanding an end to the cut, which has also affected police officers.
