Atlanta Photographer Captures Portraits Of Surviving Memphis Sanitation Workers

In 1968, sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, went on strike. It was just one of countless examples of ordinary, hard-working African-Americans standing up for their rights.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. heard the workers’ plight and headed to Memphis in March. Dr. King spoke to a crowd of thousands before leading a march a few days later. King returned to Memphis in early April and spoke to the striking sanitation workers ahead of another march, but his life was cut short on April 4 when he was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel.

Atlanta photographer Joshua Rashaad McFadden has taken the portraits of those surviving Memphis sanitation workers. “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes spoke with McFadden about activism and photography, along with Nicole Moore of the Center for Civil and Human Rights.