Roland Martin: The Sanitation Workers That MLK Fought For

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. went to Memphis, Tennessee to fight for sanitation workers rights. He gave his famous speech “I’ve Been On The Mountain Top” only to be killed a day later.

Roland Martin had the privilege of talking with Elmore Nickleberry and Cleo Smith, two sanitation workers whose rights Dr. King came to fight for. To this day both Nickleberry and Smith still work for the Memphis sanitation department and are still fighting for equality.

“He meant a great deal to me. He was a kind man to me. Every time I think about it, it does something to me,” expressed Smith. “I don’t like talking about it too much. It really does something to me.”

Nickleberry explained that although much has changed more work needs to be done. “Well, for one thing, we’ve made some progress and like I just keep iterating we came a little way but we still have a long way to go. So we still have a lot of land to conquer.”

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