Going down Jericho Road
Subtitle: the Memphis strike, Martin Luther King's last campaign
By: Michael K. Honey.
Edition: Norton paperback ed.
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.
Published: 2008
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 623
ISBN-13: 9780393330533
Subjects: King, Martin Luther, -- Jr., -- 1929-1968; Sanitation Workers Strike, Memphis, Tenn., 1968; Strikes and lockouts -- Sanitation -- Tennessee
Description: The definitive history of the epic struggle for economic justice that became Martin Luther King Jr.'s last crusade. 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 were chewed up like garbage in the back of a faulty truck, igniting a public employee strike that brought to a boil long-simmering issues of racial injustice. With novelistic drama and rich scholarly detail, Michael Honey brings to life the magnetic characters who clashed on the Memphis battlefield: stalwart black workers; fiery black ministers; volatile, young, black-power advocates; idealistic organizers and tough-talking unionists; the first black members of the Memphis city council; the white upper crust who sought to prevent change or conflagration; and, finally, the magisterial Martin Luther King Jr., undertaking a Poor People's Campaign at the crossroads of his life, vilified as a subversive, hounded by the FBI, and seeing in the working poor of Memphis his hopes for a better America.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [575]-590) 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.