MEMPHIS, TN (abc24.com) - It was a day of remembrance and reflection for everyone that packed the council chambers Tuesday afternoon as the City of Memphis honored three of the sanitation workers who went on strike 44 years ago.
Alvin Turner, who spent thirty-four years in the city's sanitation department, told abc24.com, "We the sanitation workers were the ones that fought the fight."
Turner says it bothers him that the fight they found ended up with the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "We accomplished a great deal, but we paid a hell of a price for it," he said.
Rev. Jesse Jackson was with Dr. King and marched along side Turner, Joe Warren and Elmore Nickelberry. He said it was good to see his old friends again. "They represent the moral on the pendulum of the new society."
The sixty-five day strike ended April 16th, 1968, when the sanitation workers finally got the pay raise they had been asking for.
