I am a Man: Dr. King & the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike

Please see this wonderful video below regarding the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Worker's strike:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBDgH435oaU

This film give some really interesting insight from some of the strike's participants.

Please check out the direct statements from Dr. King at:

7:40, and
9:20 (spoken on the night before he was assassinated in Memphis)

I cannot do justice or say enough good things about MLK Jr. and his and his colleagues' efforts during the 1950s and '60s. I have tried to read as much about Dr. King and his efforts and am particularly fascinated with the direction he was moving in during his last year, expanding civil rights campaign to wage a "war on poverty" with his plans for the Poor Peoples' Campaign and his strong stance against the Vietnam War (Dr. King's words against that war ring as true today as there did when they were spoken in 1967).

Dr. King stood with the sanitation workers and their struggles for equality in Memphis. He was a man of and for the people who did not have a traditional "voice" in the public dialogue.

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As Dr. King said when asked about how he would like to be eulogized, he stated:

Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize—that isn’t important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards—that’s not important. Tell them not to mention where I went to school. (Yes)

I'd like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others. (Yes)

I'd like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody.

I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question. (Amen)

I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. (Yes)

And I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. (Yes)

I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. (Lord)

I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity. (Yes)

Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. (Amen) Say that I was a drum major for peace. (Yes) I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. (Yes) I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. (Amen) And that's all I want to say.

If I can help somebody as I pass along,

If I can cheer somebody with a word or song,

If I can show somebody he's traveling wrong,

Then my living will not be in vain.

If I can do my duty as a Christian ought,

If I can bring salvation to a world once wrought,

If I can spread the message as the master taught,

Then my living will not be in vain.

Yes, Jesus, I want to be on your right or your left side, (Yes) not for any selfish reason. I want to be on your right or your left side, not in terms of some political kingdom or ambition. But I just want to be there in love and in justice and in truth and in commitment to others, so that we can make of this old world a new world.

Delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia, on 4 February 1968.

Note to Mods: please move to another forum if you believe more appropriate. I am posting here because the General Discussion seems to get a lot of traffic and folks may like to see this video.

At my bookclub, someone made a statement to the effect that the steelworkers in the 70's were overpaid, that they didn't deserve a good living because they were only blue collar workers. Now, a lot of the people in my family were steelworkers. Overpaid? They worked extra shifts and took extra jobs to try to get their kids through college, to pay the mortgage on a modest house and maybe rent a house at the beach on Lake Erie for a week or two.

Why shouldn't someone who works with their hands and back get paid a decent wage? This morning all across New York State farmers got up at the crack of dawn with their laborers to milk cows. The farmers I know don't make much money, and the people working for them make $8-$12/hour. What about all the people who got up to go to work to scrub the toilets at offices, hotels and hospitals? What about the people who haul away the garbage so your street looks nice?

As long as some Americans look down on other Americans because of how they earn a living, we've got a problem.

edited to made damn sense

:hi:

Been there, done that!