Do you know why Dr. King was in Memphis? I want you to read this.

[ThomWV]

Today you will hear, time and time again, that Dr. King was murdered while in Memphis to support a strike by the garbage workers in that city. However you will probably not hear what started the strike. It was not started over wages, vacation pay, work hours, or anything resembling benefits. The strike resulted from the deaths of two sanitation workers.

In february of 1968 two sanitation workers, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, were crushed to death in the back of a garbage truck. The two men took refuge in the compactor in the back of the truck, the gaping mouth that eats the garbage and via a huge hydraulic ram compacts it into the truck. It was a heavy rain storm. The truck had returned to the sanitation office (a shack at the dump) during heavy rains. The white workers took shelter inside the office but the black workers were not allowed in - that is why they got in the loader/compactor section of the truck - to take shelter from a driving rainstorm while their white coworkers stood dry indoors. While they were in the back somehow the ram was activated and the two men were, in seconds, crushed to death. The city paid the families 1 month pay plus $500. Not one official from the city attended either of them men's funerals.

That is why he was there. Yes it was a strike, but the strike resulted from the utter disreguard for the diginity of their fellow human beings, either in life or in death. That was segretation in this country. Do not allow anyone to 'white wash' it.

[babylonsister]

1. I have never heard this; how appalling. nt

[volstork]

132. I grew up in Memphis

and I have never heard this story (in 41 years). Unbelievable what can be swept under the rug for so long....

[H2O Man]

2. Right.

Very important point. Thank you.

[TTUBatfan2008]

3. Perhaps that was the reason MLK was there...

but it sounds like their wages were awful and the wage problem was one of the big reasons for the strike. They said they were making 99 cents an hour and that they could work 40 hours per week and still be eligible for welfare. Talk about disregard for their dignity. It's absolutely awful...it makes me want to cry really.

[MadMaddie]

89. I also read that if they worked overtime they still only received

pay for 40 hrs.

Sound familiar...?

[Beausoleil]

4. I'd never heard this, either

but it definitely has the ring of truth, as anyone who was alive in the 60's should recognize.

[H2O Man]

9. It's well documented.

It is described in books ranging from Taylor Branch's "At Canaan's Edge" to William Pepper's "Orders to Kill."

[Beausoleil]

15. I have done a lot of reading about the JFK assassination

I just never spent the time on the MLK hit, even though I always believed that Ray was railroaded and that the political hits of the 60's and 70's were well organized government (or rogue) jobs (including John Lennon, 1980 and Reagan, 1981).
I think I'll look for Pepper's book. Thanks!

[PATRICK]

20. If the same attention

was applied to MLK the way it had been to the Kennedys it would be common knowledge that the FBI was there watching the assassination, then quietly cleaned up and went away, that the entire court case and history was swept away into the dustbin faster than 911.

At long last there was an actual TV show which Ray himself attended in the docket(at last) where famous attorneys presented the case in a mock trial. The jury acquitted him on reasonable doubt and anyone watching would have had to agree. The FBI agent, who never understood exactly what they were doing sruveining King that day in that way, was a deeply overcome witness.

Select goons in the rotted elite of the establishemnt murdered change and hope and countless numbers of ordinary people and their chosen voices. Beyond the cottage industry of conspiracy theorists that focus on finding some talisman physical evidence, that single unassailable fact has never been allowed to triumph over the establishment control of media, power and mindset. That is why all the details languish to the amazement of people who know them and the burden of proof is meaningless and a worse joke than the
feverish efforts to pierce the magic bullet or crazy lone gunman outer walls.

[frogcycle]

93. RFK too

[ms liberty]

5. K&R n/t

[PA Democrat]

6. I didn't know that. Thanks for posting.

[underpants]

7. 1 month pay plus $500???

That is horrendous. They clearly couldn't get a good lawyer or even didn't get one at all

I did not know that Thom, thanks.

BTW_ the reason for the Watergate break-in? Nixon was crying to find out if Howard Hughes had been talking to the Dems and if there was any dirt on Hughes that they could find in that office. Yes it was actually a personal thing between two giants of the era.

[ThomWV]

8. So very few people know what caused that strike - and as far as I'm concerned everyone should know.

Because it tells the entire story of segregation to my mind. Hatred, poverty, ignorance, disrespect, death.

[Flying Dream Blues]

10. I had never heard this, either; only that it was about a strike.

How monstrous; I had no idea.

[AlertLurker]

11. One other note:

Another BIG reason for the strike:

On days when it rained cats and dogs, the garbage workers could not work. On these days, the whites were PAID and the blacks were NOT.


RIP.

[ThomWV]

13. Yep, although my memory of it is slightly different

On this part my memory is cloudy but as I recall they were actually trying to wait out the rainstorm so they could either go back to work or the whites would get paid. I believe - and I could be dead wrong about this - that the whites (truck drivers) would be paid a half day's pay if they were rained out but the blacks (loaders) would get nothing if they knocked off early. So the whites were just waiting out the clock but the blacks could not leave until the whites did and the whites were not coming out of that shed until they had enough time in to get paid.

Like I said, I could be dead wrong on what I've just said but it is what I remember.

[TTUBatfan2008]

18. Yeah it's awful...

simply no other way to describe it really. As I said earlier, it just makes me want to cry. Being 22, I just can't understand it. But I have seen it, straight from the government in fact so I'm not naive to think that this is completely gone from society. My friend went to the Air Force Academy on a football scholarship. He was at a house party one night and a white girl fell down some stairs. He was not in the same room as her and did not know her. But she pointed the finger at him and several other black guys. All of them were kicked out of the Academy no questions asked. My friend transferred to Sam Houston State to play football there and continue his education, but that incident pissed me off so much.

[malaise]

12. Thanks for this

K & R

[LiveLiberally]

14. Thanks for this post.. I just posted on GD-ED a link to a great editorial on same subject...

Link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x350347

[madokie]

16. I vaguely remember this from years gone by

I stand proud today because I am a descendant of a man who done the right thing so many years ago. My grandfather was a union soldier during the civil war even though he was from Georgia and had to fight against some of his own family members. Grandfather was born in 1840, my dad in 1897, me in 1948 for those who may think it not possible for this to be.
peace.

[kestrel91316]

134. Buncha randy ol' coots in your family, I see!

[DemReadingDU]

17. NPR Storycorps: Sanitation Workers Remember King's Last Stand

4/4/08
Forty years ago Friday, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed in Memphis, Tenn. He was there to lend his support to sanitation workers — most of them African American — who were on strike, protesting terrible working conditions and low wages.

Taylor Rogers and Elmore Nickelberry were among the 1,300 who walked off the job in 1968. Rogers remembers picking up tubs of garbage that were full of holes.

"That garbage would leak all over you," he says. By the time he got home, his clothes were dirty and full of maggots that had fallen on him.

"I had maggots run down in my shirts, and then maggots would go down in my shoes," Nickelberry says. "And we worked in the rain — snow, ice and rain. We had to. If we didn't, we'd lose our job. They said, 'A garbage man wasn't nothing.'"

Rogers says, "It was awful." One day, two workers, who had gone into a trash compactor to escape the rain, were crushed to death.

"Sometimes you cry," Nickelberry says. "Sometimes you get mad and get up in the morning and ... say, 'I ain't going to work.' ... I had to work because that's the only way I could feed my family."


more...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89361277

There is a link to listen to the audio.

Edit: there are additional links for more Memphis memories.

[Kolesar]

61. Wow. good post

K&R

[DemReadingDU]

71. NPR Fresh Air: Martin Luther King's Last Campaign for Equality

Here's another...

4/4/08
Although many people know that Martin Luther King Jr. died in Memphis, many don't know that King had come to the city on behalf of black sanitation workers who were striking for the right to unionize. The strikers and their supporters turned Memphis upside down for 65 days in the winter of 1968.

King saw his work in Memphis as part of a new direction in the civil rights movement, emphasizing economic equality.

"We know that it isn't enough to integrate lunch counters," King told a crowd at Mason Temple in March 1968. "What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn't earn enough money to buy a hamburger and a cup of coffee?"

Historian Michael Honey joins Fresh Air to discuss King's involvement in the Memphis labor campaign, which he covered in his book, Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign.

Honey is a former civil liberties organizer and a professor of ethics, gender and labor studies and American history at the University of Washington, Tacoma.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89372561

[bigbrother05]

94. Heard that this am, living history.

[AirmensMom]

19. Thanks for posting this. n/t

[bluesmail]

21. how awful

I never read anything about that anywhere and I grew up in a liberal area near SF

[bdamomma]

22. thanks for this, I really did not know about this.

[FourScore]

23. Wow. That's sad. k&r n/t

[BlueIris]

24. Woah, talk about hidden history. nt

[NashVegas]

25. This Is the Most Important Thing

This morning, news organizations are being inundated with info that's come out in John Larry Ray's new book that claims his brother was brain-washed by the CIA / MK-ultra and offers all kinds of CS distractions.

But distracting us from MLK's work is exactly what they are doing.

[lazyriver]

26. Thank you for teaching me something important I should have

learned long ago.

[libnnc]

27. I invite everyone to read this new book on King

Written by a former professor of mine, Tom Jackson.
http://www.amazon.com/Civil-Rights-Human-Struggle-Economic/dp/0812239695/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207320705&sr=1-1

From Civil Rights to Human Rights: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Struggle for Economic Justice by Thomas F. Jackson University of Pennsylvania Press (December 2006).

[blondie58]

28. I had no idea about this fact

and it just makes me admire Dr. King so much more. Thank you for enlightening me.

[crikkett]

29. Thank you.

[IronLionZion]

30. I didn't know, but thank you for sharing this. nt

[MountainLaurel]

31. As always TWV, thank you for enlightening us

:hi:

[Coexist]

32. they just told this story on CNN - I have to say, CNN has the BEST coverage today

on race and MLK. It has been stunning all day.

[horseshoecrab]

33. Thank you for posting this - K&R

horseshoecrab

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

34. Those were evil times

Sometimes it's hard to believe how bad it was in America not that long ago. I wish younger DUers, a very few of whom seem not to realize how evil Jim Crow, segregation, and the mistreatment of black people in this country was, could go back in time and see it for themselves. I'm talking about a small minority of DUers, some of whom were defending the likes of Pat Buchanan and his disregard of segregation as an evil that has contributed to the problems of African Americans, the effects of which can still be felt.

I remember marching in May, 1970 when I lived in Oakland, CA to protest the murder of Charles Oatman by the Augusta, Georgia police. They imprisoned a 16 year old child with mental problems named Charles Oatman. He was later found dead in his cell and the police said he fell off his bed and broke his neck. This phoney story was backed up by the local medical examiner. The family ordered a private autopsy and young Oatman's body was found covered with cigarette burns and bruises and it was concluded that he'd been tortured, beaten, and killed by a blunt object while in the custody of the local police. The next day, black people in Augusta, Georgia marched in protest and the police fired their weapons into the crowd, killing six marchers and wounding a number of others.

Almost no one talks about Charles Oatman or seems to remember him anymore or the deaths that occurred when the people protested his murder at the hands of the police. Sadly, the story of why MLK was in Memphis also seems to be ignored by the media.

[otherlander]

35. Wow.

Thanks for the information, Thom.

[chixydix]

36. You are lying about the details of that accident! They were TRAVELLING on the way back

to the facility when the hydraulics got triggered. They were NOT back at the sanitation office.
It was a terrible accident but it was NOT because they were forced to stay out of shelter.

[Lex]

37. Got a link?

One was provided for what the OP said here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3103988&mesg_id=3104123

[chixydix]

39. Here...for starters

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/12/901/08799/359/453225

[Lex]

45. to a kos diary entry?

:shrug:

[chixydix]

49. How about from the union's own website then

http://www.afscme.org/about/1548.cfm

[pnorman]

147. It's good to have the best possible info on things like this.

But calling a person, who may be operating from incomplete or perhaps garbled information, a "LIAR"??? (or "racist", as per your other posting). To me, that's way out of line on a board like DU.

pnorman

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

38. Their names were Echol Cole and Robert Walker

It's true that the garbage truck was on the road. But black workers were treated like garbage. All the garbage men handling the garbage were black and the supervisors were all white. Echol Cole and Robert Walkers, like the other black garbage handlers were not allowed to ride up front in the garbage truck. They were supposed to hang on to the truck along the sides and stand on platforms with handles. When it started pouring rain, they were expected to stand outside and take it. They were treated like animals, like garbage. It was probably an accident that caused their deaths, but if you read about the conditions under which they worked, with a lack of safety and human working conditions, you can understand why this prompted a strike.

[chixydix]

40. Riding on the outside of a garbage truck is standard procedure everywhere.

Around here, the white workers do that...in rain, snow, and sunshine. Maybe they should be given a little separate wagon on ride in but my point was that the OP's version of the story was a racist lie.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

41. You miss the point - what a sad, sad attitude you have

If you do just a bit of reading about what it was like for these men, how they were treated, you wouldn't be so self-satisfied that these men were supposed to follow procedure. It was a driving rainstorm. Elsewhere in the city, the black sanitation workers were dismissed for the day without pay while their white supervisors were held on for the day, with pay. If it's raining so hard that even holding on to the outside of a moving garbage truck is dangerous, what are they supposed to do? Would you have preferred that they slip and fall in traffic? Your lack of empathy is striking.

[chixydix]

47. What is your evidence about the "elsewhere in the city" claim? I was IN

Memphis at that time and NEVER heard of such a thing. Look, riding on the truck is part of the job. Can't ride in the rain?...get a different job. Dealing Blackjack or sitting in the basement writing innovative lies on the computer...mox nix to me. Having empathy does NOT require suspending facts or reality.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

50. If you were in Memphis at the time, then you weren't paying attention

http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/memphis-v-mlk/

"During a heavy rainstorm in Memphis on February 1, 1968, two black sanitation workers had been crushed to death when the compactor mechanism of the trash truck was accidentally triggered. On the same day in a separate incident also related to the inclement weather, 22 black sewer workers had been sent home without pay while their white supervisors were retained for the day with pay."

You call the OP's thread a racist lie? You are the racist, if you don't acknowledge that black sanitation workers were treated like the garbage they handled. You say that if they didn't like the working conditions they shouldn't have taken that job? You do realize that in 1968, black people couldn't just walk away and find a decent job, don't you? Why don't you educate yourself and try to learn about the filthy, degrading conditions at low pay that these sanitation workers had to go through? You think they were treated like men? You think Martin Luther King's support of the sanitation workers was just a racist lie, too? Since you seem to think that black sanitation workers were just treated like other workers and that if they didn't like garbage work they should just work at something else? Do dare to raise your filthy head in a post like yours on this day of all days?

I'm really sorry that I even read your post. I'm sick of some DUers, a small minority like you, who are infesting this website. I think you're the fucking racist. I dearly hope you report me, because I would welcome the opportunity to tell Skinner what fucking assholes he's allowing to come on this website.

[chixydix]

53. The sewer worker situation had absolutely nothing to do with THIS incident.

I'm not defending that particular decision. My complaint was with the OP which not only suggested, but claimed as fact, that those 2 guys died by virtue of having tossed out in the rain at the sanitation office. I guess I'm not very happy when bogus stories are used to justify a point or an agenda. We all roll our eyes when somebody like Tony Snow makes up shit to defend the criminal activities of his former boss...how is this any different?

If you think I am a fucking racist/fucking asshole, feel free to report that information to the administrators.

edit: by the way, it isn't possible to work in a sewer while there is a downpour in progress. Even if Ed Norton was
able to.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

98. The OP makes sense, otherwise, how could the death of these two men be deemed an accident?

How could they accidentally get killed if they were outside of the truck? If the men weren't sitting in the back of the truck they were tossed in and murdered.

[chixydix]

103. Yes, you must be right. Some hideous racist band of monsters chased down that truck

and shoved them into the maw of that racist truck and then some racist fuck pulled the racist lever that smashed them.

How could I have missed that?

[Just-plain-Kathy]

119. That's exactly what I though happened.

Because when you really think about it, wouldn't you rather get wet from the rain then sit in the garbage?

...Something tells me you're posting on the wrong board.

[InfiniteNether]

148. Right on, brother.

[suffragette]

56. This was about much more than riding in the back in the rain

This was also about human rights and dignity.

Here's some info from an article which quotes the men who took part in the strike:

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/national/south/view.bg?&articleid=1085038&format=&page=3&listingType=natsouth#articleFull

So if you ask them what it was like, being a black man and a sanitation worker in this city in the 1950s and ’60s, they will say simply that it was "tough" or it was "bad."

And it will take some pushing for them to tell how you had to root through people’s back yards, collecting their tree limbs and dead cats and chicken bones, because there was no such thing as a garbage can placed out by the curb. Or about white bosses who carried guns and called you "boy" and worked you 10, 12, 14 hours a day but only paid you for eight, at as little as $1.27 an hour. Or about how it was when the metal tubs you toted on your head rusted through and the garbage leaked.

~snip~

The men had complained for years about that truck in particular, about raggedy, malfunctioning old trucks in general. The city never listened. Now it gave each man’s widow one month’s salary - likely less than $300 - added an additional $500 apiece, and called it square. Burial expenses alone were $900 a man.

"They felt a garbage man wasn’t nothing," says Nickelberry. "And they figured they could treat us any way they wanted to treat us. ... Make you feel bad, ’cause you know you wasn’t no garbage. You supposed to been a man."

It was, finally, one indignity too many.

By the way, I think the expression you meant was macht nichts. http://www.dict.cc/deutsch-englisch/Macht+nichts.html

[chixydix]

58. I absolutely didn't deny the general conditions...I simply complained about the bogus details

of that particular incident. And I know about "macht nichts"...I'm of German descent - was using what has become colloquially acceptable spelling

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/20/messages/397.html

[suffragette]

60. When you say "Can't ride in the rain?...get a different job."

you are diminishing the abhorrent conditions that existed.

One of the things I enjoy the most about DU is the opportunity to learn.
I, for one, was not aware of why Martin Luther King, Jr. was in Memphis then. I learned that today and am grateful to the original poster for that. It also prompted me to seek out more information, which I found in the article to which I referred and that is good, too.

I think you have an opportunity here, but it is entirely up to you what you make of it.

[chixydix]

65. No, I am saying that riding in the rain is PART OF THE JOB.

It doesn't matter whether the workers are black, white or heliotrope and puce...You want me to use an "opportunity" to say that only black garbage wagon workers ever have to get wet. Bullshit, I won't buy into that lie. I'm getting pretty fucking sick and tired of being called a racist for pointing out facts. Heat is to Kitchen as Rain is to Garbage Truck.
Live with it.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

70. You're ignoring the fact that they were treated like animals

This is what you said:

"Look, riding on the truck is part of the job. Can't ride in the rain?...get a different job. Dealing Blackjack or sitting in the basement writing innovative lies on the computer."

Their garbage truck manfunctioned. The garbage trucks they were using were old and unsafe. They were expected to handle a lot more trash than a normal garbage truck and the garbage men had nowhere to hang onto because the truck was overflowing. They were working 14 hours a day on occasion. But no one cared. They were subjected to inhuman conditions and very low pay, even for garbage collectors (if you bother to even read the stories about why they were protesting and why Martin Luther King came to support them). My bet is that in a driving rainstorm, most garbage workers today wouldn't be forced to work. They don't in my neighborhood. It's unsafe hanging on to a slippery metal platform while a truck is driving around.

Yet you continue to ignore their working conditions. You continue to disparage their cause for which MLK risked his life and lost it. Most black people couldn't get jobs dealing blackjack or working with computers in 1968. They had nowhere to go.

You choose to take the path of disgrace. You choose to mock the OP by saying that he implied only black people ever had to get wet as garbage workers. That's not what he said, but it's what you want to spout off on. I'm frankly more, MUCH MORE than sick and tired of people like you coming on to Democratic Underground. People will continue to call you out for this vile attitude. YOU live with it.

[chixydix]

76. The trucks were brand fucking new. State of the Art, as it were.

But maybe it "manfunctioned" as you so cleverly claim. But you know what, you're right...we should never force black or white or red AMERICANS to take menial jobs...only illegal aliens should have to deal with that kind of slavery, right?

Would that please you more? The fact you confuse facts with 'vile attitude' is a problem only you can deal with, possibly with professional help.

[aasleka]

77. it is not, heavy rains it is cost effective to wait them out

[chixydix]

84. So you believe the municipal bean counters were willing to throw away large amounts of money

just for the opportunity to make some garbage truck workers get rained on? Yeah...makes sense. Not.

[aasleka]

96. i have no idea wtf that is actually replying too nor what it actually means

My point: Working in a downpour is a hazard if it is not necessary it is taking an risk liable to promote accident or injury which the municipality is responsible for. It is a bad business decision, most crews "wait it out". Rain OK, downpour no.

Second: How many people do you think can ACTUALLY fit in the cab of a truck? so when you say it has nothing to do with white crews forcing them to ride in the back it boggles my mind because that is exactly what they were forced to do. Have you ever been on the inside of a garbage truck? What exactly would make a man think, "oh that is a much better spot than where I am now".

Third: How big of an anal, attention whore do you have to be to take digs at men who were crushed todeath and then make a joke about it.

[kestrel91316]

136. Perhaps you are an uneducated white trash KKKlansman,

perhaps not. But for a newbie, you sure are looking like a RW racist.

[ThomWV]

44. Most would have said 'You're right about the deaths but you got the details wrong'

But if you prefer to be an asshole that's up to you. I cited what I wrote from memory, you found what ... that they are still alive hidden away somewhere, that King was in town because he had heard about a great Bar-B-Que place; no what you found was that someother slightly different form of inhumane behavior was at the root of this strike, that these two working men died under some faintly different circumstances. OK, you got a link, you're right. I apploogize for having misled you ... asshole.

[H2O Man]

46. Most have nominated

your thread, and recognized that you have added a thoughtful, important contribution to today's discussion. And no rational person would accuse you of "lying."

[chixydix]

48. Your OP had no links and you want me to believe you (mis)remembered all those

details including the names of those 2 guys. Uh huh.
You're usually a great guy but you fucked up on this one. You want to great lengths to describe how they supposedly died because the horrible white men wouldn't let them in out of the rain. I think you knew perfectly well that was a goddamn lie.

[Lex]

51. Glad the racist assholes have you to stick up for them on the details

of their deplorable behavior.

[chixydix]

55. The OP claimed the victims were locked out of the office and had to take shelter

in a garbage truck. That was not true. Who is the racist here?

[aasleka]

78. umm asshat, they were riding in a garbage bin, not being allowed in the cab

[chixydix]

86. Well, whoever hired full-sized people for the job were at fault, then.

They should have employed only midgets so 6 of them could ride in the cab of that truck.





(I can't even imagine why I'm bothering to reply to such idiotic crap...boredom will do strange things to people, though)

[kestrel91316]

138. If you're gonna call somebody on DU a "liar" in no uncertain terms,

PROVE IT or STFU.

And go put your silly white hat back on and go back to burning crosses. We don't want racists here.

[kestrel91316]

135. If you're gonna call someone a "liar" you better be prepared to

prove they know for a fact that what they are saying is wrong. I am SICK UNTO DEATH of people who make simple misstatements of fact without knowing it being accused of lying by ignoramuses who have never in their lives opened a dictionary.

Perhaps you are LYING about the OPer. Perhaps you are simply oblivious to the true meaning of the word, in which case you are to be pitied.

[hippywife]

152. Yesterday on NPR they talked to two

of the men who were garbage men in Memphis at the time and they confirmed that they men were seeing shelter. I'll take it from them that were there.

Edited to add link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89361277

[H2O Man]

42. Here is what happened:

"Foreman Willie Crain's five-man crew had headed for the dump in one of the early pushbutton compressor trucks that had replaced the old flatbeds starting in 1957. Only two of the four collectors could squeeze into the driver's cab after hauling their tubs on foot, and the two junior men normally jockeyed from handholds and footrests on the outside. They faced a hard choice in the bad weather because city rules barred shelter stops in residential neighborhoods -- after citizen complaints about unsightly 'picnics' by the Negro sanitation workers -- and torrential cloudbursts late Thursday drove them through side-loading slits into the huge cylinder itself, where a tight mound of garbage left only a small gap behind the pistonlike compacting plate. When Crain heard screams, he could not slam on the brakes, jump out, and disengage the pushbutton compressot fast enough. Investigators would conclude that a freak shift by an onboard shovel may have shorted the wet wires to the separate monitor. A witness looking through her kitchen window saw one man struggle almost out before his raincoat or something grabbed and pulled him back down head first, leaving parts of both legs exposed."
-- Taylor Branch; At Canaan's Edge; page 685

[Catherine Vincent]

87. Thanks, Patrick!

They didn't mind the "negroes" picking up their trash but they couldn't take a lunch break in their neighborhood.

[H2O Man]

121. You are welcome!

I think that Mr.Branch's book removes any doubts that racism was infecting Memphis in 1968.

[Rhiannon12866]

151. Thank you for more of the story! Yikes! I heard nothing about this today

and I watched a lot of the coverage. How absolutely unspeakable! This absolutely needed to be talked about, but maybe the true story is considered even too horrible for prime time. What a tragedy...;(

[AikidoSoul]

43. I've read that before

probably in a book on King. One of my great heroes.

[Ilsa]

52. "I AM A MAN" -- I was wondering what was really behind those signs, because

it didn't really jive with wages and benefits issues.

Thank you very much for posting this story. I didn't know, but I was almost ten years old then.

[H2O Man]

54. One of the men's

co-workers was a minister; he suggested the "I Am A Man!" in tribute to them.

[mdmc]

57. thanks

didn't know this:kick:

[MasonJar]

59. There were interviews this morn on NPR with two of the workers.

They told of unbearabe conditions where they came home with maggots covering their clothes. The two workers got in the truck to get out of the weather and accidentally set off some mechanism that crushed them.

[1776Forever]

62. We have no idea unless we lived in that era or study it just how bad it was!

Can anyone look at things like this and blame Rev. Wright for being so outraged! This is supposed to be the land of freedom & when you hear things like this it makes you realize just how horrendous so many blacks had it for so many years!

[chixydix]

66. Golly, you're right...none of them managed to survive.

That must explain why there are no black people in Memphis.




(Before you go off on me, look up 'sarcasm')

[shraby]

99. I just alerted on this poster.

I can't stand the blatant racism any more. This was an interesting thread until this poster chimed in with the hood.

[chixydix]

104. So any criticism of a minority is racism? And any exposition of facts that

doesn't elevate minorities to Godlike status is racist? That might actually be true if DU operates the way you want. We shall see.

[libnnc]

106. you're horribly lost

[chixydix]

108. I have to hope for your sake that ugly obese female specimen isn't your property

:eyes:

[libnnc]

111. I wish it was me.

[chixydix]

114. Any hippopotamus would.

...

[libnnc]

118. Actually, it's Dawn French

she could buy and sell you about a million times over

[suffragette]

128. Property?

:wtf:

Alerting.

[libnnc]

130. shhh....he thinks he's insulted me

:rofl:

[suffragette]

137. You said it well below

He is a piece of work, that one.

[yewberry]

133. I'd like an explanation for the term 'property,' please.

I think we all would.

[Deja Q]

153. I was with you until said "ugly obese female specimen"

Racism, et al, can be practiced by anyone if they so choose, and sure as hell should be called out as racism (Wright IS wrong), but that "colorful name-calling" of yours does nobody any good at all.

[shraby]

117. Now you've made my ignore list.

I don't intend to have my enjoyment of du spoiled.

[libnnc]

107. this one's a real piece of work

[chixydix]

110. Okay, I give up...who or what is that hideous image of a fatass "woman"???

talk about uuuuugly

[libnnc]

113. You're too daft to know.

[Forkboy]

142. I thought that by it's tenth post.

Let's just say this thread is no surprise. :)

[libnnc]

105. what is your malfunction?

why are you so offended by some of the information in this thread?

Black sanitation workers were horribly treated in Memphis. Those facts are indisputable. Why are you so threatened by them?

[chixydix]

112. I think they had jobs and they were pissed off that the job required them to be out in the rain.

Boy that was some tough duty.

[libnnc]

115. You can 'think' what you wish.

Doesn't make it correct.

[chixydix]

116. Well, several DUers think we all have the right to think what we wish.

Do you disagree with that?

[libnnc]

120. you don't have the right to post racist shit on this board

you won't be here long

[muryan]

143. we agree that all people should have their say

but that doesn't mean we will suffer fools such as yourself. Take your vitriol elsewhere, I hear David Duke could use a friend.

[Gemini Cat]

144. You call that thinking?

[KG]

149. good-bye and thanks for all the fish!

maybe you can sel a dor to your buddies, but you can sell your racist shit here.

[kestrel91316]

139. Well, why don't you be honest and come right out and call them LAZY

N-----S like you would like to.

You are the most racist, sexist MFU I have ever seen.

[Deja Q]

154. WTF

Okay, I missed one of your responses... "I think they had jobs and they were pissed off that the job required them to be out in the rain" infers any number of things... not sure I want to backtrack and find out why...

[KitchenWitch]

124. There is an enormous gulf between 'surviving' and 'thriving'

Unbelievable.

[bobbolink]

63. Yes, at the end of his life, MLK realized poverty was as important, or more so, than racism.

Yet, where are Dems today?

Not much interest...

:cry:

[chixydix]

67. To me, his best work was against the VietNam "war". And so where are the Dems

on that today either? Not much difference.

[Hobarticus]

64. I remember this from grade school...

and even as a kid, it struck me dumb how inherently unjust and wrong it was. Teach the children....

[barbtries]

68. this was the strike

in which the protesters marched with signs around their necks saying simply, "I am a man."
http://www.afscme.org/about/1029.cfm

i didn't know about the 2 men's deaths either. thanks for posting.

[Rhiannon12866]

69. K&R. You're absolutely right. Nobody mentioned that today.

And I've been listening to the coverage. How inhuman and tragic! Thanks for enlightening the rest of us... ;(

[Pacifist Patriot]

72. I never knew that. Thank you.

[suffragette]

73. Great post, ThomWV

I wasn't aware of this before and thank you for bringing it to our attention.

I ended up looking around a bit more and found this article, which has statements from some of the people involved in the strike:

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/national/south/view.bg?articleid=1085038&srvc=home&position=recent

We have to know and acknowledge where we've been to learn where we need to go.

Love DU for that.

[swimmernsecretsea]

74. I remember this story.

It was retold in a biographical story on television about Dr. King's life and death. It horrified me then, and it does today. Thank you for bringing it to our attention again, and remembering how things were.

[Juche]

75. K&R

Amazing. I had no idea.

[AnnieBW]

79. Wow...

I never knew that. I was three at the time MLK was assassinated. My parents never really talked about him, except that my Mom would call him a "whoremeister" whenever he was mentioned. We didn't study about him in school, either. Can't have the nice, white kids learning about a black "radical", now can we?

Thank the Gods I had the sense to go to a liberal arts college away from all of the whitebread.

[shadowknows69]

80. Thanks for posting this Thom

I didn't know this either.

[Generator]

81. And people seriously don't get

why some say Goddamn America? There are still legions of things to say that result in a goddamn America. In fact at this moment in history, I like America less than an angry black preacher. I'm not in the majority, however, so go on America-vote for your precious "war hero" McCain-someone that didn't want MLK day to be a holiday either for political reasons or because he doesn't really get the point-(which IS worse?) he, I guess is the "best" this America really deserves.

[chixydix]

92. There's no law against emigrating to another country.

Just in case you didn't know that...

[MadMaddie]

97. Why are you here?

If you have proof of what you are saying then post it. It's that simple.

Funny thing about that...Immigrate to another Country

BLACK SLAVES were immigrated here in the holds of ships. I suppose you will somehow find that things weren't so bad and they wanted to come to America.

If you don't like it here leave. Geeze...

[chixydix]

102. What a shame you can't see my previous posts. Must be a software glitch.

What exactly do you want from me...some kind of proclamation in direct opposition to facts just to satisfy your desire for some politically correct resolution?

[kestrel91316]

141. Uh, we want you off DU permanently because you are extremely

racist and sexist. In case you weren't aware of that fact.

[libnnc]

109. I think you should emigrate to another board

[kestrel91316]

140. If you don't like the Dems who are going to be running things REAL SOON

you best head off to China or Myanmar, or one of the few places that is more fascist than the US currently is. Clearly you are not gonna be happy come November, when Obama makes it to the WH.

[ekwhite]

82. Here is another link

This one is to the King Encyclopedia at Stanford University.

[Catherine Vincent]

83. Sigh!

I let out a huge sigh after reading that. Thank you, I didn't know that.

:kick:

[lonestarnot]

85. Son of a bitch!

Why didn't I know this! I am sickened with this knowledge. :puke:

[chixydix]

88. You didn't know it because it didn't happen.

speaking of :puke:

[lonestarnot]

90. What's your version?

[chixydix]

91. I don't have a version, I have the historical record.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3103988&mesg_id=3106593

[lonestarnot]

95. Still terrible but not as bad as the op represented.

Oh and thanks.

[WillyT]

122. Sorry... Citing Your Own Post Is NOT The Historical Record !!!

Give me an actual link, to actual evidence.

:wtf:

[libnnc]

123. damn, if the History department would let me cite my own shit

I'd already have my Ph.D

[bear425]

100. This is why I still read DU - even after all the vitriol of primary season...

To learn something I never knew. Thank you ThomWV - for contributing information that will further educate and enlighten.

[bear425]

101. oops - double post

:)

[LiberalAndProud]

125. Thank you. I did not know this.

[KitchenWitch]

126. I did not know this, thank you for posting.

[GOPBasher]

127. What a horrible story. Thank you for telling me. I never heard that. n/t

[mcollier]

129. Don't be Johnny Come Late

Or John McLame or John McSame....

Recognize the greatness of a civic movement in the "Now" Time and Space... Not 20 + years later...


Vote for Barack Obama, but for what he represents, his message, his wisdom, his intellect, his judgment, his commitment to helping every American. We can all be a part of strenghtning American had charting a new course.

Visit www.BarackObama.com Find out how you can join the movement.

Thanks.

[wildbilln864]

131. K&R! nt

:hi:

[Gemini Cat]

145. Thank-you. I did not know this.

[pnorman]

146. I have a faint recollection of having heard that before, but it was really "faint".

But thanks to the magic of Google, it can be verified beyond dispute. But mainly, THANKS for that find! Google is almost useless, without the proper key words!

King’s rally rings clear for the Memphis workers he came to represent: http://news.bostonherald.com/news/national/south/view.bg?articleid=1085038&srvc=home&position=recent

pnorman

[npincus]

150. oh, my. Thank you for telling this.