Moment of Silence
1 p.m. EST
Remembering Echol Cole and Robert Walker
On Feb. 1, 1968, Memphis sanitation workers Echol Cole and Robert Walker were huddled in the back of their truck seeking shelter from a storm when the truck’s compactor malfunctioned, trapping Cole and Walker and crushing them to death.
The tragedy triggered a strike of the city’s 1,300 sanitation workers. They had warned the city about dangerous equipment but were ignored. They were fed up with poverty wages and racial discrimination. They walked off the job and marched under the banner: I AM A MAN, a plea for dignity.
On Feb. 1, 2018, the 50th anniversary of the accident that killed Cole and Walker, AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) has called for a moment of silence to honor their memory, and calls on us to pick up the mantle from the 1968 strikers in the ongoing fight for racial and economic justice.
Click here for more information.