This Day in History

March 22, 1968: March for Justice and Jobs

Time Periods: 1961
Themes: African American, Economics, Labor
Print
March for Justice and Jobs flier.

March for Justice and Jobs flier. Source: National Archives and Records Administration.

On March 22, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Community on the Move for Equality called for a march in Memphis, Tennessee in solidarity with sanitation workers who were on strike.

The flier calls for the use of “soul-force which is peaceful, loving, courageous, yet militant.”

The strike had begun in February when African American sanitation workers Echol Cole and Robert Walker were crushed by a truck compactor in Memphis.

Their deaths, along with the racist treatment of the sanitation workers, led more than 1,100 workers to strike for better wages, conditions, and safety on Feb. 12, 1968.

Find resources below to teach about the strike and the Civil Rights Movement after 1965.

Related Resources
Teaching Activities (Free)

A Revolution of Values

Teaching Activity. By Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 3 pages.
Text of speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the Vietnam War, followed by three teaching ideas.

Howard Protest 1968
If We Knew Our History

What Happened to the Civil Rights Movement After 1965? Don’t Ask Your Textbook

Article. By Adam Sanchez. If We Knew Our History series.
Too often, students are taught that the Civil Rights Movement ended in 1965 with passage of the Voting Rights Act. It didn’t. Adam Sanchez argues that it is essential to teach the long, grassroots history of the Civil Rights Movement in order to help students think about today’s movements for racial justice.

Teaching Guides

The Power in Our Hands: A Curriculum on the History of Work and Workers in the United States

Teaching Guide. By Bill Bigelow and Norm Diamond. 1988. 184 pages.
Role plays and writing activities project high school students into real-life situations to explore the history and contemporary reality of employment (and unemployment) in the U.S.

Memphis Martin and the Mountaintop 9781629797182 (Book Cover) | Zinn Education Project
Picture Books

Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop: The Sanitation Strike of 1968

Picture book. By Alice Faye Duncan. Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. 2018. 40 pages.
A historical fiction picture book that presents the story of nine-year-old Lorraine Jackson, who in 1968 witnessed the Memphis sanitation strike.

At the River I Stand
Films

At the River I Stand

Film. Directed by David Appleby, Allison Graham and Steven Ross. 1993. 58 min.
Documentary film on the African American sanitation workers’ 1968 fight for human dignity and a living wage in Memphis.

This Day in History

April 4, 1967: Martin Luther King Jr. Delivers “Beyond Vietnam” Speech

Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his speech in opposition to the Vietnam War, calling for a “revolution of values.”

Sanitation Workers Protest 1968
This Day in History

Feb. 12, 1968: Sanitation Workers Strike in Memphis

Over 1,100 sanitation workers strike and march for better wages, conditions, and safety with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee.

This Day in History

March 14, 1968: King Speaks About the “Other America” in the North

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave the speech titled “The Other America” focusing on economic inequalities and white complicity in the North.

Martin Luther King Jr. Riverside Church
This Day in History

April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated while in Memphis to support the striking sanitation workers.