Civil Rights Trail - Primary Sources

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks to a crowd in Memphis during the AFSCME Local 1733 sanitation workers’ strike.

Striking members of Memphis Local 1733 hold signs whose slogan symbolized the sanitation workers' 1968 campaign.

AFSCME members from St. Louis express solidarity with Memphis Local 1733 sanitation workers during the 8 April 1968 memorial march for Martin Luther King, Jr.

Members of Memphis Local 1733 jam a city auditorium to ratify their first bona fide contract with the city after a 65 day sanitation worker strike the year before.

AFSCME President Jerry Wurf (left) and other union and community leaders celebrate the agreement reached with the city of Memphis after a 65 day sanitation workers’ strike, a campaign that saw violence and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Associates of Martin Luther King Jr. point toward the sound where the gunfire originated just moments after his assassination at the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn. Image from Joseph Louw - LIFE Images Collection via Getty. 

Crime scene photo from bathroom of rooming house, with view of Martin Luther King's balcony. 

View of Rooming House from Lorraine Motel Balcony. 

Crowds gather in a funeral procession for Martin Luther King in Atlanta, GA.