MLK-----Echol Cole, Robert Walker and the Memphis rain
Memphis Sanitation Strike
The 'Memphis Sanitation Strike' began on February 11, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. Citing years of poor treatment, discrimination, dangerous working conditions, and the horrifying recent deaths of Echol Cole and Robert Walker, some 1300 black sanitation workers walked off the job in protest. They also sought to join the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 1733.[1][2]
Echol Cole and Robert Walker, had been crushed in a mechanical malfunction on Feburuary 1st, 1968; city rules forbade black employees to seek shelter from rain anywhere but in the back of their compressor trucks, with the garbage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Sanitation_Strike
Echol Cole was one of the two sanitation workers killed in Memphis, Tennessee on Tuesday, February 1, 1968. Robert Walker was the other. The death of these men, together with many numerous racial and working-class injustices, contributed to Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) on March 18, participating in a city-wide march to honor these men, support the Memphis Sanitation Strike, and address the human rights violations which led to their deaths. The march ended with police action, but another was scheduled. King was assassinated the evening before the second march.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echol_Cole