“I Am a Man”

Remembering the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. didn’t plan to get involved in the Memphis garbage worker’s strike. He hadn’t planned to be there on the fateful day when he was shot on April 4, 1968. King was pressured to go the first time and found the garbage worker’s strike compelling. He promised to return, and felt it important to keep his word, despite a packed schedule.