MEMPHIS, Tenn. — During a tour stop here to meet with unionists and others who had helped put the Socialist Workers Party on the Tennessee ballot Oct. 30, SWP vice presidential candidate Dennis Richter visited the I Am A Man Plaza. He was hosted by Kermit Moore, president of the Memphis NAACP and leader of the A. Philip Randolph Institute.
The plaza commemorates the historic fight by 1,300 Black sanitation workers who walked off the job in February 1968 protesting inhuman and discriminatory treatment by the city. Their fight for dignity, safety as well as fair wages and treatment, and carrying signs saying “I am a man,” was a watershed union and civil rights battle. It was in Memphis that Martin Luther King Jr., who had come to join in, was assassinated.
The plaza features a wall etched with the names of all 1,300 strikers. Moore’s first cousin, Quinton Moore Jr., is one of them.
“This is the place where the sanitation workers and supporters used to meet to march,” Moore said. The Clayborn Temple next to the plaza is “where workers and supporters took cover after being beaten and maced by the police. The police followed them and sprayed Mace into the church. Clayborn Temple was abandoned in the early 2000s and wasn’t restored until recently.
“In 2018 we organized a series of activities in Memphis to commemorate the 1968 strike. That’s when the I Am A Man Plaza was built so people had a place to come and learn about this important fight.”
Moore, who has been active in the Memphis labor movement for many years, talked with Richter about the importance of teaching young people about the strike and organizing more workers into unions today.
“Things are beginning to change,” said Richter. “People are inspired by the fights by unionists like in the auto industry and at Boeing. Workers need to see our own self-worth. You can stand up if you have self-worth. You get that in part by understanding your history.”
Memphis is marked by a rich history of intertwined labor battles and the fight to overthrow Jim Crow segregation. Richter and his supporters visited the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, where King was killed.
“I encourage anyone who wants to learn more about the civil rights movement to visit this museum,” the socialist candidate said. “Many of the exhibits highlight the involvement of millions of working people in this fight. From the lunch counter sit-ins to the Freedom Rides to the sanitation workers strike, you can see the power of a movement of workers who refuse to be treated as second-class citizens and stand up for their rights.
“It shows what working people are capable of.”
They enjoyed lunch at Ms. Girlee’s Soul Food Restaurant, run by the family of Baxter Leach, one of the striking sanitation workers in 1968.