Jan 29th, 2016
Alvin Turner and Baxter Leech, two of the sanitation workers that participated in the 1968 Memphis sanitation workers strike, will be honored in an open reception hosted by the Black Student Association at Jackson State Community College. The event will be held in the lobby of the McWherter Center on the college's main campus, Wednesday, February 3 at 5:30 p.m.
The event will kickoff Black History Month at the college. The sanitation workers are coming to the college prior to a presentation at the Jackson-Madison County Library on Thursday, February 4. Friends of the Library is the group sponsoring the sanitation workers' trip to Jackson.
Gloria Hester, Friends of the Library member and acquisition and circulation librarian at JSCC, expressed her appreciation for the actions of the workers in 1968. "We owe much to these men," she states. "Our parents and grandparents literally had to lay their lives on the line for many of the rights we have today. We owe them so much."
In April, 1968, more than 1,300 sanitation workers walked off the job in Memphis to highlight the need for economic equality and social justice. The following day, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. The actions of the sanitation workers did much to initiate legislation that has made great strides in achieving the goals of Dr. King.
For information regarding the reception, contact Countance Anderson at 731-425-2637 or canderson26@jscc.edu. For information pertaining to the presentation, Contact Perry Burrows at pburrows@perryburrows.com.