Strike Flyer: Have Sanitation Workers A Future?

What it is

This is a flyer from 1968 distributed to sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, during their strike. It was submitted as Exhibit 2 in the legal case City of Memphis vs. Martin Luther King Jr. The flyer gives numbered instructions for workers and supporters, including boycotts and daily marches, and includes a work card for the Community On the Move for Equality (C.O.M.E.) organization.

Why it matters

This flyer documents the grassroots organizing methods used during the Memphis sanitation workers' strike, the struggle that brought Martin Luther King Jr. to Memphis in the final days of his life. It shows the practical, day-to-day tactics of nonviolent resistance: boycotts, marches, and community solidarity, and situates King within a broader local labor and civil rights movement.

Look closer

• What specific actions does the flyer ask supporters to take, and why might these particular tactics have been chosen?
• Who do you think created and distributed this flyer, and how would it have reached its audience?
• What does this document reveal about the role of ordinary workers and community members in the civil rights movement, beyond King himself?