The Workers

A photographic look back at the recent lives of Memphis sanitation workers who went on strike 51 years ago today

Elmore Nickleberry driving his truck at the start of his shift in 2017.

Last year felt like a culmination. The ceremonies and commemorative merchandise and parades belied the reality of five decades since the struggle of Memphis sanitation workers who caught the attention of the world.

The sanitation strike in 1968 almost didn’t happen.

In his book Going Down Jericho Road, Michael Honey writes about workers who were afraid to strike despite the deaths of their colleagues, Robert Walker and Echol Cole, and grievances about low pay and exploitative labor, and a failed strike in 1966. When the 1968 strike did start on Feb. 12, its resolution was marked by the public trauma of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.

As of 2018, at least two of the workers who stood on the strike line were still on routes for the City of Memphis public works department, now alongside workers with temporary contracts. These images from the past few years of events and moments may remind us of the importance of Dr. King’s central question in a non-banner year: Where do we go from here?

Jack Walker (center), son of Robert Walker, stands at the front of a 2018 event to honor his father, who was one of two sanitation workers (the other Echol Cole) killed in a garbage truck accident 51 years ago.

(Left to right) Nickleberry loads trash into his truck, while working his shift. Cleo Smith (center) gets ready to start his shift at the depot in 2017. Smith works his route alongside co-workers, many of whom are temp workers.

(Left) Ozell Ueal, in the back left, stands alongside other surviving sanitation workers during a visit to the Obama White House in 2011. (Right) Cleo Smith wears a pin commemorating the I Am A Man campaign during an event to memorialize the deaths of Robert Walker and Echol Cole.

Ozell Ueal and his wife Florence stand for a portrait after an interview recalling the days of the sanitation strike in 1968: “Well, the strike started because there were poor working conditions, and we weren’t making anything. I remember starting work January 6, 1960. I think I started at $1.37 an hour. So that’s really no money, and they worked us like dogs.”

Former international secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Bill Lucy stands with marchers in downtown Memphis on Feb. 12, 2018, the 50th anniversary of the sanitation strike. Baxter Leach, one of the surviving strikers, speaks.

A view of one of the sanitation trucks used as a barrier and a backdrop at the ribbon cutting for the I Am A Man Plaza on April 5, 2018.

(Left) Cleo Smith stands for a portrait outside of the AFSCME union hall in downtown Memphis. (Right) Surviving strikers stand on stage during the AFSCME commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination on April 4, 2018.

(Left) The Rev. James Lawson, who served as the chairman of the striking committee in 1968, at the ribbon cutting ceremony for I Am A Man plaza. (Right) Memphis police officers, including Director Mike Rallings (center), pose for a photo at the ribbon cutting for the I Am A Man plaza.

Some of the sanitation workers from 1968 strike sit at Mason Temple during the 50th anniversary of the Mountaintop speech on April 3, 2018.

This story is brought to you by MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, a nonprofit reporting project on economic justice in Memphis. Support independent journalism by making a tax-deductible donation today. MLK50 is also supported by the Surdna Foundation, the Southern Documentary Project and Community Change.