I Am A Man
Artist: Ernest C. Withers (American, 1922 - 2007)
Publisher: Panopticon Press, Tony Decaneas, Waltham, MA
Date: photographs: 1956-1968; portfolio: 1994
Dimensions:
sheet: 15 15/16 x 19 13/16 in. (40.5 x 50.3 cm)
image: 11 11/16 x 18 13/16 in. (29.7 x 47.8 cm)
Sheet, according to WAC form: 11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.6 cm)
Medium: Portfolio with letterpress text and ten gelatin silver prints.
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Mrs. George W. Stevens Fund
Object number: 2003.46A-J
Label Text:“…we were trying to find something we could put on a sign that could say it all. It must have been almost midnight, and we'd been struggling, and we had a sign that said "I AM A MAN"…With that sign we changed the idea that these garbage workers were gluttons making unfair demands. It was clear that these were men whose dignity and respect and manhood was being preyed upon.”
--Jesse Epps, 2004, who, as a labor official, helped with the strike in 1968
Spurred by the accidental deaths of two men in a faulty compactor and citing a history of unfair treatment, more than 1,000 Memphis sanitation workers (most of them black) went on strike February 12, 1968. Local black leaders organized national support, bringing in Martin Luther King, Jr., who led the “I Am a Man” march for economic equality. A few days later, on April 3, King delivered his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech to the striking workers. The next day, he was shot and killed on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.
After King’s assassination, the Federal government intervened in the union negotiations, and the strike was resolved on April 16.
--Jesse Epps, 2004, who, as a labor official, helped with the strike in 1968
Spurred by the accidental deaths of two men in a faulty compactor and citing a history of unfair treatment, more than 1,000 Memphis sanitation workers (most of them black) went on strike February 12, 1968. Local black leaders organized national support, bringing in Martin Luther King, Jr., who led the “I Am a Man” march for economic equality. A few days later, on April 3, King delivered his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech to the striking workers. The next day, he was shot and killed on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.
After King’s assassination, the Federal government intervened in the union negotiations, and the strike was resolved on April 16.
DescriptionPortfolio with letterpress text and ten gelatin silver prints.
Not on view
In Collection(s)