Elmore Nickleberry, a Memphis sanitation worker who marched with Martin Luther King, has died at 92
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Elmore Nickleberry, a longtime Memphis sanitation worker who took part in the pivotal 1968 strike that stopped the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. brought to the city where the civil rights leader was murdered, has died at the age of 92.
Nickleberry died Dec. 30 in Memphis, according to an obituary from RS Lewis and Sons Funeral Home, which handled his services. A cause of death was not announced.
Nickleberry was one of about 1,300 black sanitation workers who formed a union and went on strike after two co-workers, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, were crushed by a faulty garbage truck compactor as they sought shelter from a rainstorm in the back of the truck on Feb. 2. Many struggled to pay bills and feed their families as they fought for better wages, working conditions and benefits.
“We had no place to shower, wash our hands, nothing,” Nickleberry told the Associated Press in 2018.
King came to Memphis to support the strike and build support for his Poor People’s Movement. He led a march on Beale Street on March 28, 1968, which turned violent when police and demonstrators clashed. Nickleberry was among the protesters who joined King that day in the city on the Mississippi River.
“A lot of people got hit and started running. I got hit in the arm, so I went to the river,” Nickleberry said. “A lot of people got dogs that got sick… It was bad at that time. Really bad.”
King had planned another march, but he was fatally shot on April 4 while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. The sanitation workers eventually struck a deal for higher wages and better conditions.
“When he came, we were all happy because we thought if he came to town we would have better working conditions,” Nickleberry said. “Dr. King was a great man.”
On the 50th anniversary of King’s assassination, Nickleberry recalled the famous “Mountaintop” speech King gave on a stormy night at Mason Temple the night before he died.
“He knew something was going to happen. He could feel it,” Nickleberry said. “When he spoke like that, he had power in his voice.”
Nickleberry worked for the Memphis Sanitation Department for 65 years. He served in the U.S. Army and was honorably discharged before going to work for the department at the age of 21.
“I spent two weeks out of the gate trying to find a job,” Nickleberry said. “Then a man said to me, ‘Boy, you’ve been coming here for two weeks, a week or two.’ I said. ‘Yes sir.’ He said, ‘Come in, boy.’ I went in and the next day I started picking up trash.”
Nickleberry and other sanitation workers received several awards in later years. A memorial near the Clayborn Temple, where organizers handed out the famous “I Am A Man” placards they carried during protests, honors their legacy.
“The efforts of the strikers, with their iconic ‘I Am A Man’ placards, and of people of goodwill in Memphis, have led to remarkable progress in race relations and labor equality, and have forever changed my city for the better ”, said the US representative. Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Memphis, said in a statement after Nickleberry’s death. “The strike and its aftermath were a defining moment for Memphis and for the country.”