Elmore Nickleberry, who told the world he was a man during the Memphis sanitation strike of ’68, dies at 92

From –  NABJ Black News & Views
Reprinted – by Texas Metro News

History maker Elmore Nickleberry, one of the last living participants in the Memphis sanitation strike that drew the support of Martin Luther King, has died. He was 92.

The striking workers, nearly all of them Black, withstood maggots and trash sliding underneath their clothing, being called “boy,” profoundly low pay and carrying tubs of trash of up to 40 pounds on their backs. Nickleberry once told a reporter that he smelled so bad at the end of his shift that he would forego the bus and walk six miles home. 

The 65-day walkout ended in a major civil rights and labor victory, but, sadly, also contributed to King’s death at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.

Nickleberry retired at 86, and did so only after Memphis reached a settlement with the remaining strikers, who received $50,000 each. Learn more about him and his life.