![]() | Do you know why Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. went to Memphis in 1968? It was to support the striking Memphis sanitation workers. Prior to their decision to strike in February 1968 over horrible working conditions, low pay and a lack of dignity, two sanitation workers — Echol Cole and Robert Walker — were crushed to death in a malfunctioning garbage truck on Feb. 1, 1968. After that, the African-American Memphis sanitation workers went on strike for better pay, improved working conditions and to be treated with respect as men. Do you know how much they were paid? According to researchers at Wayne State University, “the average pay was $1.80 per hour.” The original blog post on this topic was published in April 2011. It has been updated with new information, new images, a video from the labor union involved in the strike and, a tribute to Dr. King and other civil rights warriors in the form of a prayer. It's a wake-up-call prayer fervently prayed Jan. 20, 2019, by Rev. Dr. Thomas Hudspeth of Lovers Lane United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas. To read the updated blog post, experience the video and hear Dr. Hudspeth's MLK prayer, click here: https://bit.ly/2R4vIKY. |