Lives of the Sanitation Workers

Wages and working conditions for Memphis sanitation workers were atrocious. The average pay was $1.80 an hour. The wages were so low that forty percent of the workers qualified for welfare and many worked second jobs. They lifted leaky garbage tubs into decrepit trucks and were treated unfairly. During foul weather, black workers were sent home without pay while the white workers were paid a full day. There were neither benefits, vacation, nor pension. The sanitation department refused to modernize ancient equipment used by the black workers. Black sanitation workers were called 'walking buzzards.'

City hires replacement workers

31 Show up to Replace Strikers. (Creator: Brown, Charles A.; Date: 1968-03)

Pay check stub from sanitation worker

This January 31, 1968 pay stub for a Memphis sanitation worker shows he earned $137.13 for 90 hours of work. This translates to $849.95 in 2010. (Date: 1968-01-31)

Seated Strikers

Members of Memphis Local 1733 are seated on benches during the 1968 sanitation workers' strike. (Date: 1968)