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59:. Their coworker Elester Gregory, who had been riding in the cab of the truck, said "The motor started racing and the driver stopped and ran around and smashed that button to stop that thing ... I didn’t know what was happening. It looked to me like one of them almost got out, but he got caught and just fell back in there.”
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It was a gruesome chore to retrieve the two crushed bodies from the garbage packer and pronounce them dead at John Gaston
Hospital. Echol Cole and Robert Walker soon became the anonymous cause that diverted Martin Luther King to Memphis for his last march. City flags flew at half-mast for them, but
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at the corner of
Colonial Rd. and Verne Rd. on February 1, 1968. While working that day, the pair sought refuge from a rainstorm in the compactor area of their garbage truck. The two African American men were prevented from seeking shelter from the rain inside a building due to segregation laws. They
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The deaths of Cole and Walker proved to be the catalyst for the
Memphis sanitation strike. On February 11, ten days after their deaths, union Local 1733 held a strike meeting where over 400 workers complained that the city refused to provide decent wages and working conditions. The workers wanted
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Cole (age 36) and Walker (age 30) were both sanitation workers in
Memphis, Tennessee. Both reported for work on February 1, 1968, a day the rain would be later reported as torrential, overflowing the sewers and flooding the streets. While on shift, at around
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Following their deaths, their widows received no insurance benefits; the city offered one month's pay for each man, and $ 500 for funeral expenses. Black
Memphians donated $ 100,000 USD to the widows; the
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On Monday
February 12, 1968, 930 of 1100 sanitation workers did not show up for work, including 214 of 230 sewer drainage workers. Only 38 of the 108 garbage trucks continued to move.
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pm, the pair sought refuge in the back of their truck during a rainstorm. A malfunction followed, and both men were crushed to death by the truck's
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to join a citywide march on March 18. The march ended with police action, but another was scheduled.
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were killed when the compactor accidentally activated. Their deaths were a precursor to the
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178:"'I Am a Man': The ugly Memphis sanitation workers' strike that led to MLK's assassination"
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251:"How Martin Luther King Jr. helped Memphis sanitation workers fight for their dignity"
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as the catalyst for a new movement. Their fate was perhaps too lowly and pathetic.
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Cole and Walker would not be listed among civil rights martyrs, nor studied like
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Going down
Jericho Road the Memphis strike, Martin Luther King's last campaign
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Battling the
Plantation Mentality: Memphis and the Black Freedom Struggle
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326:"Martin Luther King, Jr., and Memphis Sanitation Workers"
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Charity, Philanthropy, and
Civility in American History
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Accidental deaths of two
American sanitation workers
298:Honey, Michael K. (2007). "On Strike for Respect".
268:Friedman, Lawrence J.; McGarvie, Mark D. (2003).
35:, during which the prominent civil rights leader
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222:Bond, Beverly G.; Sherman, Janann (2003-01-01).
195:Green, Laurie Beth; Green, Laurie Boush (2007).
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388:February 1968 events in the United States
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398:Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
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201:. University of North Carolina Press.
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109:the evening before the second march.
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114:they never were public figures like
87:donated an additional $ 25,000 USD.
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304:(1 ed.). New York: Norton.
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393:History of Memphis, Tennessee
383:Deaths by person in Tennessee
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77:National Civil Rights Museum
20:Echol Cole and Robert Walker
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225:Memphis: In Black and White
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33:Memphis sanitation strike
26:who died accidentally in
228:. Arcadia Publishing.
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103:Martin Luther King Jr.
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255:The Commercial Appeal
249:Weathersbee, Tonyaa.
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107:King was assassinated
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101:injustices prompted
85:United Auto Workers
116:Lisa Marie Presley
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28:Memphis, Tennessee
24:sanitation workers
378:1968 in Tennessee
354:978-0-684-85712-1
330:National Archives
311:978-0-393-04339-6
281:978-0-521-81989-3
235:978-0-7385-2441-2
208:978-0-8078-3106-9
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