Reverend Ralph David Abernathy SCLC treasurer and successor to SCLC president Martin Luther King, Jr.
ACLU American Civil Liberties Union—in our discussion, the West Tennessee chapter.
AFL-CIO American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.
AFSCME American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
AME African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Frank Ahlgren Editor of Commercial Appeal.
Claude Armour Commissioner of the Memphis Police Department.
Robert Beasley First recording secretary and early organizer of AFSCME Local 1733.
Reverend Ezekial Bell Black Presbyterian minister and strike supporter.
Reverend James Bevel SCLC staff member.
Charles Blackburn Commissioner of the Memphis Department of Public Works, including the sanitation division.
Reverend Malcom Blackburn White pastor of the all-black congregation at Clayborn Temple, a scene of mass meetings and mass marches.
Taylor Blair White agent for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers who tried to settle the strike.
Jerred Blanchard White Republican City Council member.
BOP Black Organizing Project, started by Charles Cabbage and Coby Smith.
H. Rap Brown Leader of the SNCC.
Reverend Baxton Bryant White director of the Tennessee Council on Human Relations, Nashville.
Clinton Burrows Early organizer of AFSCME Local 1733.
Charles Cabbage SNCC member and organizer of the BOP.
Stokely Carmichael Leader of the SNCC in 1968.
Panfilo Julius (P. J.) Ciampa AFSCME director of field operations, Washington, D.C.
COINTELPRO FBI counterintelligence program to discredit Martin Luther King, Jr., and 1960s social movements.
COME Community on the Move for Equality, a multidenominational minister-led strike support organization.
Commercial Appeal Memphis newspaper with the largest circulation in the mid-South.
Cornelia Crenshaw Community organizer and strike supporter.
E. H. Crump Former mayor (elected 1908) and political boss of Memphis until 1954.
Fred Davis Black Memphis City Council member.
Lewis Donelson White Republican City Council president.
Joseph Durick Bishop of the Catholic Church in Tennessee.
Reverend Jesse Epps AFSCME national organizer assigned to the Memphis strike.
O. Z. Evers Postal worker and early supporter of sanitation workers.
Ed Gillis Older member of AFSCME Local 1733; one of the first to go on strike.
Edwina Harrell Early member of the BOP.
Highlander Folk School Southern organizing center for labor and civil rights movements.
Frank Holloman Memphis fire and police director.
Reverend Benjamin Hooks Baptist minister and lawyer, and the first black judge in Memphis.
J. Edgar Hoover Director of the FBI.
Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance Memphis organization of black ministers.
Invaders Memphis Black Power youth organization started by the BOP.
Reverend Jesse Jackson SCLC staff member.
Reverend Ralph Jackson Director of the minimum salary program of the AME.
Bob James White businessman and Memphis City Council member.
Lyndon Baines Johnson President of the United States, 1963–68.
Thomas Oliver (T. O.) Jones First president and early organizer of AFSCME Local 1733.
Coretta Scott King Antioch College graduate, peace and civil rights activist, and wife of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Senior minister at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, and president of SCLC.
Dan Kuykendall Memphis Republican congressman, 1966–74.
Reverend Samuel (Billy) Kyles Memphis NAACP leader and strike supporter.
Reverend James Lawson Minister of Centenary United Methodist Church in Memphis and chair of COME.
LeMoyne College Historically black college, later merged with Owen Junior College.
Stanley Levison New York attorney, financial and strategic consultant to Martin Luther King, Jr.
Local 1733 Part of AFSCME, chartered in 1963; the Memphis sanitation workers’ union.
Henry Loeb Mayor of Memphis, 1960–63 and 1968–72; Commissioner of Public Works, 1956–60.
Lorraine Motel Home to black civil rights activists and musicians on the road, and site of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
William (Bill) Lucy Memphis native and black field organizer for AFSCME.
Marrell (Max) McCullough Black Memphis Police Department paid informant.
J. C. MacDonald Memphis Police Chief.
Reverend Frank McRae White friend of Henry Loeb and strike sympathizer.
Mason Temple Church of God in Christ mass meeting place in Memphis.
Reverend Harold Middlebrook Youth organizer for Memphis COME.
Frank Miles Labor mediator and personnel director for the E. L. Bruce lumber company.
Reverend Dick Moon Strike supporter and Presbyterian chaplain at the University of Memphis.
NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Jack O’Dell Former leftist union member, fundraiser and strategist for SCLC.
Reverend James Orange SCLC staff member and Poor People’s Campaign northern mobilizer.
J. O. Patterson, Jr. Black Memphis City Council member, attorney, and state legislator.
Larry Payne Black youth slain by Memphis police officers on March 28, 1968.
O. W. Pickett Organizer of a black political club and the sanitation strike support fund.
Tommy Powell State legislator and president of the Memphis Labor Council (AFL-CIO).
Downing Pryor White Memphis City Council member and auto dealer.
A. Philip Randolph President of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and leader of the March on Washington.
Ed Redditt Black Memphis plainclothes police officer.
L. C. Reed Longtime sanitation worker, one of the first AFSCME members on strike.
Willie B. Richmond Black Memphis plainclothes police officer.
James Robinson Chairperson for the sanitation section of AFSCME Local 1733 after the 1968 strike.
Taylor Rogers President of AFSCME Local 1733 after the departure of T. O. Jones.
James Reynolds Undersecretary of Labor sent by President Johnson to settle the Memphis sanitation strike.
Bill Ross Executive director of the Memphis AFL-CIO Labor Council.
Bayard Rustin Civil rights organizer and advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr.
SCLC Southern Christian Leadership Conference, organized in 1957 to “redeem the soul of America.”
Coby Smith Organizer of the BOP and a Southwestern College student.
John Burl Smith Militant leader of the Invaders and former soldier.
Maxine Smith Executive director of the Memphis branch of the NAACP.
Dr. Vasco Smith Board member of the Memphis branch of the NAACP.
SNCC Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
Reverend Henry Starks President of the black Memphis Ministerial Alliance and Memphis sanitation strike leader.
Russell Sugarmon Black attorney, state legislator, and Memphis civil rights activist.
Calvin Taylor Member of the Invaders and intern at Commercial Appeal.
Tri-State Defender Major black Memphis newspaper.
Jesse Turner Banker, accountant, and president of the Memphis NAACP.
UAW United Automobile Workers union, led by president Walter P. Reuther.
URW United Rubber Workers union, Local 186, at Memphis Firestone Tire and Rubber Company.
Joe Warren Early organizer and staff member of AFSCME Local 1733.
Rabbi James Wax President of the Memphis Ministers Association, a predominantly white clergy organization.
WDIA Major black radio station.
Roy Wilkins National president of the NAACP, 1955–77.
Hosea Williams Staff member of the SCLC.
WLOK Major black radio station.
Jerry Wurf President of AFSCME, 1964–81.
Andrew Young Leading staff member of SCLC and lieutenant to Martin Luther King, Jr.