While Memphis celebrates the 50th anniversary of the black city sanitation workers strike, a modern grassroots movement is underway throughout the mid-south, evoking the symbolism of 50 years ago.
Continuing the Fight
When minimum wage workers marched on February 12, 2018, it wasn’t just in remembrance of MLK50 or the efforts of the black sanitation workers all those years ago; it was instead to improve their own situation and carry on the fight. Their demands? A minimum wage of $15 per hour and the right to unionize.
Memphis may have been the focus on February 12, but it was not the only city that saw minimum wage employees take to the streets. Two dozen cities throughout the mid-South saw minimum wage walkouts and strikes that same day. In Memphis, nearly 1500 workers followed the same route sanitation workers did in 1968, marching from Clayborn Temple to Memphis City Hall. The minimum wage workers in Memphis were joined by many who support their cause.
- Reverends Dr. William Barber II and Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign
- President of the Service Employees International Union, Mary Kay Henry
- A coalition of Black Trade Unionists founder Bill Lucy
- Original sanitation workers who walked in 1968
A Groundbreaking Movement
When the sanitation workers marched in 1968, they sought better working conditions in addition to a $2 per hour raise, a pay rate that would equate to $15.73 today, adjusted for inflation. Those sanitation workers in 1968 carried signs declaring “I AM A MAN,” and the current movement that is drawing inspiration from them has taken to carrying their own signs. Updated for the internet age, protestors are able to design their own signs, replacing the “MAN” of the original signs with whichever descriptor they choose.
While the sanitation workers of 1968 were singularly black men, today’s effort to improve working conditions for minimum wage workers are not singularly bound by skin color. However, people of color remain over-represented among them. More than half of African American and 60 percent of Latino employees in the fast-food industry alone make less than $15 per hour.
The fight that began on the streets of Memphis 50 years ago continues today, decades later.
See the video of the Memphis March below:
