Taylor Rogers: We Wanted to be Treated Like Men

In 1968, Taylor Rogers was a trash collector in Memphis, Tenn. -- "just another guy" with eight children to support and a mortgage to pay off. He became a part of history. Disgusted by racism and poor working conditions, Taylor and 1,300 fellow African-American sanitation workers in Memphis launched a strike to win recognition as a union -- and as human beings. Their protest signs said it simply: "I am a man." The strike succeeded after 64 days, but it exacted a terrible toll: Workers were beaten, gassed and jailed. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. paid the ultimate price: He was assassinated while in Memphis to support the strike. During a roundtable discussion at SEIU headquarters, he discusses how the strike came about.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• memphis
• taylor
• rogers
• sanitation
• strike
• martin
• luther
• king
• assassination
• SEIU
• mountaintop
• labor
• AFSCME
• union