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National Civil Rights Museum
450 Mulberry Street
Memphis, TN
38103
Tel: 901-521-9699
Fax: 901-521-9740
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What Happened Here?
While the American Civil Rights Movement had achieved success in the courts of law, the practical realization of social and economic equality for African Americans was slow in coming. The delivery of these rights became the focus of civil rights activism.
In addition, as Dr. King increasingly believed that the movement’s concerns were wider in scope; he and others struggled to end the war in Vietnam, to alleviate poverty across America, and to halt the terror sown by racists in the South.
Thus, in 1968, when 1,300 African-American sanitation workers went on strike in Memphis, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) became involved. Dr. King and his colleagues perceived that the struggle for dignity and fair wages undertaken by these laborers underscored the larger and more universal cry for human rights and economic parity.
Regrettably, a protest march Dr. King led on March 28 in support of the Memphis workers culminated in violence. There was doubt as to whether King could lead masses of people in a nonviolent protest march. King returned to Memphis on April 3 ever hopeful that justice—and nonviolence—would prevail.
Before the second march could be staged, Dr. King was assassinated (April 4, 1968) on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.
