Alicja Duda (4)

June 9, 2012

It is only Day 2 of the Civil Rights Travel Course, but I already think that today is the most memorable (and transformative) day of the whole summer. Why? Because today I got to meet, embrace, and converse with living people of history: the very same people who participated in the 1968 Sanitation Workers’ Strike.

A little bit of context: Sanitation workers were overworked, underpaid, and unnoticed by society because society designated such a dirty job to the lowest form of people they knew: blacks. They were so embarrassed that many chose to walk home from work to avoid being ridiculed on the bus for their smell after a long day of taking out other people’s trash. On the worst occasions, their work was fatal. Once, on a rainy day, two workers tried to stay dry by ducking under the cover of the garbage disposal truck. Both slipped and fell inside. They were crushed.

While passing through Memphis, Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) took note of the plight of the sanitation workers. Despite it being an unpopular issue, MLK gave his full time and efforts to empower the sanitation workers. You see, the sanitation workers had attempted to defend themselves since 1961; however, it was the tactics of MLK that truly organized them and his symbolic presence that gave them the publicity they deserved. On March 29, 1968, 5,000 sanitation workers marched holding bold signs stating “I AM A MAN.” Just a couple weeks later, the city agreed to give the workers raises and to recognize their union J.

Imagine these same men, once ridiculed by society, in today’s world. Let me tell you, the four veterans we were privileged to meet were remarkable: freshly dressed in a suit and tie with shining dress shoes, some even with a matching hat, and all of them speaking to us honestly and humbly. Although they are uneducated, retired sanitation workers, they were perhaps more dignified and real than half of us students in the room. I was awestruck.

At the discussion panel, someone asked why it took so long for the sanitation workers to unite. A man from the panel, named Mr. Leech, answered, “If you kick a dog, it will fear your feet. It took us that long to build up courage; we took a hell of a beating.”

I was amazed at their story. Unlike the teenaged Freedom Riders who risked nothing except postponing their education, these sanitation workers risked everything: their jobs, their family’s stability, their lives. I raised my hand and commented how similar their situation in the 1960s is to the situation of farmworkers today; both are exploited and lack unity. I asked how could present day farmworkers gain the courage to organize themselves? One man answered with another analogy (I am noticing that people really enjoy analogies on this trip J): “If you hold one pencil in your hand, you can break it easily,” he said to me, gesturing with his hands. “However, if you hold 10 or 15 pencils in your hands, they are much harder to break. This is how we find strength.”

 I deeply appreciated his answer. But I was not satisfied; how do the farmworkers gain courage to even unite 10 or 15 of themselves to protest physical and emotional abuse, poor salaries, and general exploitation? How do farmworkers overcome their fear of deportation? Fear of losing their job? Fear of risking their family and life? I think that they are missing their Martin Luther King. They need a solid, public figure to represent them in society. Maybe a lawyer, maybe a valiant Mexican farmworker—whoever it is, I believe that social movements need a figure to lead the numbers.