March 22, 1968: March for Justice and Jobs

Teaching Activity. By Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 3 pages.
Text of speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the Vietnam War, followed by three teaching ideas.

Article. By Adam Sanchez. If We Knew Our History series.
Too often, students are taught that the Civil Rights Movement ended in 1965 with passage of the Voting Rights Act. It didn’t. Adam Sanchez argues that it is essential to teach the long, grassroots history of the Civil Rights Movement in order to help students think about today’s movements for racial justice.

Teaching Guide. By Bill Bigelow and Norm Diamond. 1988. 184 pages.
Role plays and writing activities project high school students into real-life situations to explore the history and contemporary reality of employment (and unemployment) in the U.S.

Picture book. By Alice Faye Duncan. Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. 2018. 40 pages.
A historical fiction picture book that presents the story of nine-year-old Lorraine Jackson, who in 1968 witnessed the Memphis sanitation strike.

Film. Directed by David Appleby, Allison Graham and Steven Ross. 1993. 58 min.
Documentary film on the African American sanitation workers’ 1968 fight for human dignity and a living wage in Memphis.

Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his speech in opposition to the Vietnam War, calling for a “revolution of values.”

Over 1,100 sanitation workers strike and march for better wages, conditions, and safety with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave the speech titled “The Other America” focusing on economic inequalities and white complicity in the North.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated while in Memphis to support the striking sanitation workers.