Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) is a living legend of the civil rights movement and we get to take selfies with him. We can touch him. Wrap our arms around his shoulders. Most importantly, we get to listen to his speeches and live-tweet them.
Stevante Clark clung to the Rev. Al Sharpton’s neck as Sharpton delivered the eulogy at the funeral of Stevante’s brother, Stephon, who was gunned down by Sacramento, Calif., police officers on March 18. At one point during the service, Stevante took the mic from California NAACP President Alice Huffman and asked the…
Perhaps no phrase encapsulates the sentiment of the struggle for freedom, justice and equality more than “I am a man.”
You are beautiful.
There is a recipe for making a hero.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. returned to Memphis, Tenn., on April 3, 1968, one day after the funeral of Larry Payne—the 16-year-old boy killed by Memphis Police Officer Leslie Dean Jones.
Memphis, Tenn., exploded into chaos on March 28, 1968, as militarized police officers—armed with rifles, tear gas, billy clubs and the full authority of the state—terrorized black protesters who were out in full force to support Memphis sanitation strikers.
A group of teens began a 50-mile march in Mississippi on March 31 in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. and to mark the 50th anniversary of his assassination. The group, which includes adult mentors, will finish its march on April 4 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., where King was killed on April 4, 1968.
Those of us who study black history have always heard rumors of an alleged relationship between Martin Luther King Jr. (then known as “ML”) and a white woman in his younger days.
During the 1968 Memphis, Tenn., sanitation strike, there were no signs that read “I am a woman” or “I am a wife” or “I am a mother.” The wives of sanitation strikers were given no awards for their tireless contributions to the struggle, but they should have been.
As the families of Echol Cole and Robert Walker struggled to put their loved ones to rest, a different kind of storm was brewing in Memphis, Tenn.—and Feb. 12, 1968, was a tipping point. Cole and Walker had only been dead for about two weeks, having been crushed to death by a faulty, outdated garbage truck, but their…
Sharecropping in the United States was slavery by another name, and many of the 1968 Memphis, Tenn., sanitation strikers were well acquainted with it.
Robert Walker, 30, and Echol Cole, 36, woke up on Thursday, Feb. 1, 1968, and went to work for the Memphis (Tenn.) Sanitation Department. They left their families for a long day of collecting garbage with the full expectation of returning home to them. Instead, as their shifts were about to end and heavy rain poured…
Oprah Winfrey may rule out a 2020 run to end President Donald Trump’s reign of terror over this country, but Cory Booker might not. In Atlanta Saturday, the U.S. senator from New Jersey was a thunderous presence at the King Center’s annual Salute to Greatness Awards Gala, where he was the main honoree.
In November, President Donald Trump’s administration released declassified FBI documents on President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. But the release also included a batch of Martin Luther King Jr. documents filled with allegations of “abnormal” sexual behavior and of being a “slow thinker” and a “Marxist” (pdf).
In the 50th year since his assassination in 1968, much has and will be said about Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights leader and icon whose legacy of nonviolent resistance inspired the world—while compelling some to distort and dilute his message of activism.
In Memphis, Tenn., 1968, 1,300 sanitation workers braved the bitter cold to engage in a revolutionary 65-day action to defend their right to personhood. These men struggled against the noose of white supremacy to proclaim their dignity. They stood, shoulder to shoulder, armed with picket signs and perseverance,…
