Barney Sellers, 1968, I Am a Man: Photographs of the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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On February 12, 1968, a strike broke out among Memphis’ African-American sanitation workers over low wages and unsafe working conditions. The strike was ignited over the deaths of two workers due to a malfunctioning garbage truck, although tensions had been high for years. The strike’s iconic “I Am A Man” march, referring to the slogan on many strikers’ signs, was led by Martin Luther King Jr. on March 29th. Over five thousand demonstrators attended this march, which would be King’s final act for civil rights, who was assassinated only two months later. The strike ended two weeks later, on April 16, when the city government agreed to many of the workers’ terms.
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