Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt of a column by AFSCME President Lee Saunders published in TheGrio.com. To read the entire column, go here.
On Feb. 1, 1968, two Memphis sanitation workers, Robert Walker and Echol Cole, were picking up garbage on their route when they sought shelter from a driving rainstorm by crouching in the back of their truck. Something tripped the mechanism that compressed the trash, and Cole and Walker were crushed to death.
This incident ignited one of the most courageous worker actions in American history: a two-month strike by the city’s entire sanitation workforce, who were represented by AFSCME, the union I now serve as president.
The signs they carried as they marched said it all, four simple words so powerful in their simplicity: I AM A MAN. The strike drew the attention of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who would join the sanitation workers’ fight — in what would be his last campaign.
On the 55th anniversary of these extraordinary events, AFSCME is launching a five-episode podcast called “I AM Story,” which recounts this heroic stand against bigotry and injustice. Through interviews and firsthand accounts from key participants in the strike, this podcast will once again tell the Memphis sanitation workers’ riveting, inspiring story.