At The River I Stand This documentary takes us back to a time 100 years after slavery where the descendants were consigned to the bottom of the economic ladder. Yet, Memphis was spared the upheaval of Little Rock, Selma and Birmingham because of modest gains of access to movies, libraries and lunch counters. Nevertheless, the seething volcano was building up pressure in the public works department of Memphis. Complaints concerning malfunctioning equipment had been an ongoing cause. Although I 1963, T. O. Jones led 32 fellow workers off the job because of reprehensible conditions, it would not be until 1968 that on a rainy day an electrical short activated a garbage truck compressor crushing two men to death. The men had no workmen’s compensation,
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Battle lines were quickly drawn as the whites supported the mayor and the Negro community rallied behind the sanitation workers. T.O. Jones had succeeded in getting affiliation with the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), but few of the men at that time were willing to risk losing their jobs. Mayor Loeb hired replacement workers when the men refused to go back to work. AFSCME president Jerry Worth arrives in Memphis to intervene on the workers behalf seeking concessions through the City Council, which sided with Mayor Loeb. Worth pushed to an untenable position announced the backing of the union with the sanitation workers. A chain of events precipitated by Loeb, the police, media and ire of the white populace caused the lava to …show more content…
He has spoken of the panoramic view of time and has arrived back to the 20th century and avows petitioning God to allow him to live in latter part of this particular century because something is happening all around the world as the masses are rising up. The following quote from that speech kind of reached out to me.
And another reason that I’m happy to live in this period is that we have been forced to a point where we are going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demands didn’t force them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple with them.
Battle lines were quickly drawn as the whites supported the mayor and the Negro community rallied behind the sanitation workers. T.O. Jones had succeeded in getting affiliation with the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), but few of the men at that time were willing to risk losing their jobs. Mayor Loeb hired replacement workers when the men refused to go back to work. AFSCME president Jerry Worth arrives in Memphis to intervene on the workers behalf seeking concessions through the City Council, which sided with Mayor Loeb. Worth pushed to an untenable position announced the backing of the union with the sanitation workers. A chain of events precipitated by Loeb, the police, media and ire of the white populace caused the lava to …show more content…
He has spoken of the panoramic view of time and has arrived back to the 20th century and avows petitioning God to allow him to live in latter part of this particular century because something is happening all around the world as the masses are rising up. The following quote from that speech kind of reached out to me.
And another reason that I’m happy to live in this period is that we have been forced to a point where we are going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demands didn’t force them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple with them.