MEMPHIS — They Weren't Allowed to Come in From the Rain #shorts #blackhistory #facts

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]February 1st, 1968. It was raining in Memphis. Two sanitation workers had nowhere to shelter. City rules barred black workers from seeking refuge [music] in residential buildings along their routes. So, they climbed inside the back of their truck.

[00:00:15]The compactor activated. They were crushed to death.

[00:00:19]Echol Cole was 36. Robert Walker was 30.

[00:00:23]The city did not pay their families a cent.

[00:00:27]The city of Memphis had been told the truck was unsafe.

[00:00:30]T.O. Jones, [music] the union organizer, had already asked the city to stop using that particular vehicle. It was too old, too worn out.

[00:00:39]The city classified Cole and Walker as hourly employees.

[00:00:42]Their families received no workers' compensation.

[00:00:45]>> [music] >> Neither man could afford the city's life insurance policy. Their wives and children were left destitute. A few days before they were killed, 21 black workers in the sewers and drains division had been sent home without pay during rain, while white workers continued to work [music] and get paid.

[00:01:01]That was the city they worked for.

[00:01:04]On February 12th, 1968, more than 1,100 public works employees went on strike.

[00:01:10]>> [music] >> Of 108 garbage trucks, only 38 moved.

[00:01:15]Their demands: union recognition, better wages, safety protections, the right to be treated as human beings.

[00:01:22]The signs they carried said it plainly, "I am a man." Mayor Henry Loeb refused to recognize the strike. He rejected a city council resolution to end it, >> [music] >> saying only he had the authority to recognize the union. He was a stubborn man who believed black workers had no right to organize.

[00:01:39]>> [music] >> He never changed that position.

[00:01:42]On March 18th, King came to Memphis and addressed a crowd [music] of approximately 25,000.

[00:01:48]He came back again on April 3rd. He [music] gave his final speech, "I've been to the mountaintop," at the Mason Temple. That night he told the crowd he had been to the mountain. He had looked over. He might not get there with them.

[00:02:00]He had been receiving [music] death threats for years. He was always afraid.

[00:02:05]He kept coming back anyway. The next evening, [music] April 4th, he was shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.

[00:02:12]King was killed supporting men who collected garbage, >> [music] >> garbage collectors, who wanted union recognition and a living wage. After his assassination, Mayor Loeb still [music] refused to settle. On April 8th, 42,000 people marched silently through Memphis.

[00:02:28]Coretta Scott King led them. The strike finally ended on April 16th, 1968. The city recognized the union. Wages were increased.

[00:02:38]Echol Cole, Robert Walker. 1,300 men walked off the job for them. The most famous civil rights leader in the world came to Memphis for them. He died there.

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