On this day in Labor History the year was 1968.
This is the day in Memphis that marked Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s final march for Civil Rights.
If you are a regular listener to Labor History in 2, last month you heard about how AFSCME sanitation workers in Memphis went on strike to win union recognition.
They were protesting low wages and poor working conditions, but city officials refused to negotiate.
Dr. King came to Memphis to support the effort.
On March 18th he gave a stirring speech to a packed church, calling for a ramp-up in community support of the strike.
A march to City Hall was planned to bring more attention to the plight of the striking workers.
Memphis city officials estimated that 22,000 students skipped school to take part in the march.
Although organizers called for non-violence, some of the young participants were fed up with the slow pace of Civil Rights in Memphis.
Picket marchers at the end of the line began to use their signs to break store windows.
The Police crack-down was swift. A line of police in riot gear stretched across the street to meet the marchers.
Fearing greater violence, King called off the demonstration, and was quickly taken to a nearby hotel.
Chaos erupted. Some stores were looted. Police met the crowd with teargas, nightsticks and gunfire that killed a sixteen year old boy.
Police chased fleeing demonstrators back to a church and released tear gas inside the sanctuary.
They clubbed people as they lay on the floor trying to get fresh air. Undeterred by the violence Dr. King returned to Memphis the following week. It was there that he was murdered by an assassin’s bullet, giving his life in the struggle for black sanitation workers to have dignity on the job and the right to bargain for a better life.
Labor History in 2:00 brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and The Rick Smith Show