ECHOL COLE AND ROBERT WALKER
The tragic and gruesome deaths of these two sanitation workers inspired the Memphis sanitation worker marches and brought Martin Luther King to the city for what would be his final appearance.
Read the story of this devastating event and the circumstances surrounding it.
Watch an interview featuring Cole’s son discussing his father’s legacy.
CLAUDETTE COLVIN
Months before Rosa Parks famously refused to give up her seat, 15-year old Claudette Colvin was convicted of the same crime.
FANNIE LOU HAMER
After a voting rights meeting and a failed attempt to vote, Hamer went on to become one of the leading voices of the civil rights movement.
LARRY PAYNE & LIZZIE MAY PAYNE
Larry, a student who joined the march supporting the sanitation worker strike, was murdered at the hands of a Memphis law enforcement officer. In response, Martin Luther King intended to visit Larry’s mother, Lizzie May, on his final trip to Memphis but tragically was unable to fulfill that promise. Larry’s murder was never resolved by the department of justice despite his family’s continued struggle for justice.
BAYARD RUSTIN
A close advisor to Martin Luther King and one of the most influential and effective organizers of the civil rights movement, Bayard Rustin was affectionately referred to as “Mr. March-on-Washington.”
REV. MALCOLM BLACKBURN
Supported the civil rights movement in Memphis by welcoming organizers to gather in the Clayborn Temple and providing the printing press used for the iconic “I am a Man” signs.
WALTER LEE BAILEY AND LOREE BAILEY
Owners of the Lorraine Motel and witnesses to Martin Luther King’s assassination. The Lorraine Motel is the current location of the National Civil Rights Museum.
Listen to an interview with Walter Lee Bailey from 1968.
Read the story of Loree Bailey and other witnesses to King’s assassination.
ALBERTA WILLIAMS KING
Tragically assassinated six years after the death of her son, Martin Luther King Jr., Alberta Williams King was active in the NAACP and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
MARY ELLEN FORD AKA “Witness 43”
After keeping her experiences private for 50 years, Mary Ellen still feels grief and shock from what she witnessed at the Lorraine Motel in 1968.
Watch her retelling of her experience on the 50th anniversary of King’s assassination.
ELLA BAKER
Often called the “mother of the civil rights movement,” Ella Baker was the primary force behind the formation of some of the most influential organizations of the twentieth century.
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