Clayborn Temple, the Romanesque Revival church in front of you, served as the beating heart of the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike. On February 1, 1968, two Black sanitation workers — Echol Cole and Robert Walker — were crushed to death when the compactor on their garbage truck malfunctioned. They had climbed inside to escape the rain because Black workers were not allowed to seek shelter in the break rooms reserved for white employees.
The city's response was indifferent. Thirteen hundred Black sanitation workers walked off the job. They marched through Memphis carrying signs that read simply: 'I Am a Man.' Clayborn Temple was their gathering place, their organizing hub, their sanctuary.
After each march, they returned here to sing, pray, plan, and restore their resolve. The walls of this church absorbed the prayers and the strategy of one of the most important labor and civil rights actions in American history. The 'I Am a Man' signs that became the symbol of the strike were stored and distributed from here.
When you look at this building, you are looking at the infrastructure of a movement.