I AM A MAN

September 5, 2022 8:46 AM

At the River I Stand is an award-winning documentary about the Memphis sanitation strike. Full transcript of the film. Conditions for black sanitation workers had worsened in 1968, under Mayor Loeb's administration, who refused to take dilapidated trucks out of service or pay overtime for late-night shifts. On 1 February 1968, two garbage collectors, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, were crushed to death by a malfunctioning truck.

The children's book Memphis, Martin and the Mountaintop: the Sanitation Strike of 1968, as read by its author, Alice Faye Duncan (profile).
The iconic "I AM A MAN" protest sign.
Another video 1300 Men: The Memphis Strike '68

posted by spamandkimchi (4 comments total)

From the transcript of At the River I Stand:

Narrator: During the 1960’s Memphis spared itself the uprisings which drew national attention to Little Rock, Birmingham and Selma by integrating facilities in a relatively peaceful manner. Blacks were finally admitted to movies, libraries and lunch counters but economically they continued to occupy the most menial jobs for the lowest of wages. Nowhere was this more evident than in the department of public works.

Coby Smith (community organizer): This was a job a white man could not have, it was beneath the level of a white man it was a social caste, this is a job reserved for blacks it was not a clean job. They had to wear filthy clothes they had to work in filth, they had to drag garbage cans, I mean tubs of garbage.

Taylor Rogers (sanitation worker): And those tubs had holes in them, garbage leaking all over ya when you got home in the evening you had to stop at the door to pull of your shoes, pull off those real dirty clothes because maggots had fallen all on ya.

Narrator: the men worked long hours for no over time pay, there were no grievance procedures, no paid vacations no sick leave, if a man got injured on the job he could be fired. Wages were so low that a full time worker could still qualify for welfare.

Clinton Burrows: Memphis residents thought that we were satisfied because most of those people would give you hand outs, but we just got tired of those handouts. You almost could tell a worker when you saw him in the streets, he either had a hat on too large or his shoes was too big or his coat was too long, from handouts you know. We worked every day and none of us had the money so that we could buy and pick as other people do.

N: in 1963 T.O. Jones led 32 fellow workers off the job, the city responded by firing them. Most were eventually re-hired, but the point had been made union activities would not be tolerated. Jones refused to go back and continued his efforts to organize the men.

Jesse Jones (Son of T.O. Jones): You know he used to tell me, because I would see all this paperwork and stuff, he used to tell me that these people don't realize that they don't have to live like this. That if they come together they can overcome these little things, you know, although they think they can't win, but they can you know. It was like he was telling me, convincing me that he was right.

posted by spamandkimchi at 8:50 AM on September 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

This was made by three of my film professors from U of Memphis!
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:58 PM on September 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

thank you for the post, perfect film to watch this evening.
posted by wowenthusiast at 2:32 PM on September 5, 2022

I had never heard about any of this, so thank you for making this post and making us aware of it. My god, the story of Mr. Cole and Mr. Walker is just fucking heartbreaking.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 11:58 AM on September 6, 2022