Going down Jericho Road
Subtitle: the Memphis strike, Martin Luther King's last campaign
By: Michael K. Honey.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.
Published: 2007
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 619
ISBN-13: 9780393043396
Subjects: King, Martin Luther, -- Jr., -- 1929-1968; Sanitation Workers Strike, Memphis, Tenn., 1968; Strikes and lockouts -- Sanitation -- Tennessee
Description: "Memphis in 1968 was ruled by a paternalistic "plantation mentality" embodied in its good-old-boy mayor, Henry Loeb. Wretched conditions, abusive white supervisors, poor education, and low wages locked most black workers into poverty. Then two sanitation workers, seeking shelter from one of the city's notorious torrential rains, were chewed up like refuse in the back of a faulty truck, igniting a months-long public-employee strike that would shake the nation.".

"With novelistic drama and rich scholarly detail, Michael Honey brings to life the magnetic characters who clashed on the Memphis battlefield: the resolute black workers; strike leaders like the impoverished, driven T. O. Jones; black ministers like Martin Luther King's longtime ally, the inspired and dedicated Reverend James Lawson, and his flamboyant colelague, Reverend Ralph Jackson; union men; the first black members of the Memphis city council; dynamic black women like civil rights leader Maxine Smith and community advocate Cornella Crenshaw; and volatile young Black Power advocates like Coby Smith and Charles Cabbage."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 571-586) and index.
Table of contents: title: Labor and civil rights; title: A plantation in the city; title: Dr. King, labor, and the civil rights movement; title: Struggles of the working poor; title: Standing at the crossroads; title: On strike for respect; title: Hambone's meditations : the failure of community; title: Testing the social gospel; title: Fighting for the working poor; title: Minister to the valley : the poor people's campaign; title: Baptism by fire; title: Ministers and manhood; title: Convergence; title: Escalation : the youth movement; title: "All labor has dignity"; title: "Something dreadful"; title: Jericho Road is a dangerous road; title: Chaos in the bluff city; title: "The movement lives or dies in Memphis"; title: State of siege; title: Shattered dreams and promised lands; title: "A crucifixion event"; title: Reckonings; title: "We have got the victory"; title: Epilogue : how we remember King.