The death of these men, together with many numerous racial and working-class injustices, contributed to Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) on March 18, participating in a city-wide march to honor these men, support the Memphis Sanitation Strike, and address the human rights violations which led to their deaths.
Untitled (I Am a Man) (1988), a reinterpretation of the signs carried during the Memphis Sanitation Strike in 1968 — made famous by Ernest Withers’s photographs of the march —, is the first example of his use of text.
Memphis's mayor, Henry Loeb, declared the strike illegal and refused to meet with local black leaders.
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Citing years of poor treatment, discrimination, dangerous working conditions, and the horrifying recent deaths of Echol Cole and Robert Walker, some 1300 black sanitation workers walked off the job in protest.
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Mayor Loeb and others feared rioting, which had already begun in Washington, D.C. Federal officials, including Attorney General Ramsey Clark, urged Loeb to make concessions to the strikers in order to avoid violence.
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