Race/Related: A Long Time Coming

Memphis to Compensate Black Sanitation Men of ’68 Strike View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Friday, July 21, 2017 [Join Race/Related »]( [Elmore Nickleberry, 85, passes the Lorraine Motel — the site where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed and now home to the National Civil Rights Museum — on his downtown Memphis route as a sanitation worker.] Elmore Nickleberry, 85, passes the Lorraine Motel — the site where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed and now home to the National Civil Rights Museum — on his downtown Memphis route as a sanitation worker. Andrea Morales for The New York Times This is the first in an occasional series we’re calling “Living History,” featuring stories of Americans who have been on the front line of the civil rights movement.  By [Alan Blinder]( For 63 mostly uninterrupted years, the rhythms of Elmore Nickleberry’s life have included the rumbles and roars of Memphis’s sanitation trucks. Even now, at 85 and the longest-tenured employee in the city’s history, Mr. Nickleberry still runs a downtown route until 3 a.m. And in the darkness, he cannot help but reflect during collections across the street from the National Civil Rights Museum. “Every night I go down there, I see someone taking pictures,” said Mr. Nickleberry, one of the hundreds of black sanitation men who mounted a strike in 1968 to protest working conditions in a Southern city that was deeply split by race. “And that does something to me when I think about what happened.” But he did not have any real certainty about his retirement nest egg until this month, when the city said it intended to award tax-free grants of $50,000 each to Mr. Nickleberry and the 13 other surviving strikers — an improvised fix to one of the most bitter legacies of Memphis’s labor history. “They’ve been saying they didn’t have no money, so I didn’t think it was ever going to happen,” Mr. Nickleberry said in an interview earlier this month. “I was shocked.” Despite Mr. Nickleberry’s longevity — a city spokeswoman said he had exceeded, by several years, the record tenure for a municipal employee in Memphis — contractual and legal issues have marred the decades-long path toward a sturdier retirement for him and the colleagues who struck for more than two months. [Mr. Nickleberry, left, helping collect waste along his route. He was among the hundreds of black sanitation men in Memphis who mounted a strike in 1968 to protest working conditions.] Mr. Nickleberry, left, helping collect waste along his route. He was among the hundreds of black sanitation men in Memphis who mounted a strike in 1968 to protest working conditions. Andrea Morales for The New York Times The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was involved in the strike effort and addressed an estimated 25,000 people in Memphis in March 1968. After an outbreak of violence during a later visit, he nearly chose not to return — but he did in early April and delivered his heralded “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech in the city on April 3. “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life,” Dr. King said. “Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!” He was assassinated the next evening, shortly after he had been briefed on plans for another mass demonstration. The strike ended soon after the death of Dr. King, who was shot at the site now occupied by the National Civil Rights Museum. But the sanitation workers of the 1960s have long faced a gap between their retirement benefits and those of other city workers. The difference hinged on a choice after Memphis recognized a union for the sanitation workers: They elected to participate in Social Security instead of Memphis’s pension plan. Only later did it become clear that the Social Security payments would be insufficient to provide meaningful retirements, setting off years of talks and searches for legal loopholes. Throughout that time, Mr. Nickleberry kept coming to work. “I had a family, and so I had to feed my family,” he said. “That’s why I stayed.” He had no inkling that Mayor Jim Strickland had begun to consider a grant-based approach last year. Under the plan, which Mr. Strickland made public this month, the city will spend $910,000 from its general reserves, including $210,000 to pay taxes associated with the grants. “It’s imperative that the City of Memphis do the right thing by these men who sacrificed so much on the mission that brought Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to our city in 1968,” Mr. Strickland [said in a blog post]( on Medium. [Mr. Nickleberry, left, with his colleague Sean Hayes, 45, on a break in a McDonald’s. “It’d be much better in the city of Memphis if all people got together and stood up for rights,” he said.] Mr. Nickleberry, left, with his colleague Sean Hayes, 45, on a break in a McDonald’s. “It’d be much better in the city of Memphis if all people got together and stood up for rights,” he said. Andrea Morales for The New York Times The city also announced new steps to fortify retirement plans for current sanitation workers. It was, officials and workers said, a long-in-coming realization of a goal of the original strike. “My mind was flashing back,” Mr. Nickleberry said of Mr. Strickland’s announcement. “If Dr. King had seen that or heard that, I think he would have enjoyed it, jumped up and down and shouted himself. It’s been a long time.” To Mr. Nickleberry, Memphis’s choice is an economic and moral reckoning, one that he hopes will allow a still-divided and troubled city to move forward on other issues. He would also like to see Memphis, the city where he was born and has lived his entire life aside from a stint in the Army, to embrace what he described as Dr. King’s all-encompassing vision. “It’d be much better in the city of Memphis if all people got together and stood up for rights,” Mr. Nickleberry said. “That’s what he stood up for. If everybody could get together and stand up for rights, Memphis would be on the map, and we could get a lot of things done.” He said he planned to use part of the grant money to travel to California for a vacation. The money, he said, “will really help me retire.” He has not yet decided when his last route as a crew chief might come. “I still do the same thing I’ve been doing for 63 years, and I enjoy my job,” he said. But he said the expected payment and a stronger retirement offered him a measure of vindication, decades after he first protested. “That’s what I wanted,” he said softly, “always wanted.” ADVERTISEMENT [Lizbeth Mateo in her office in a day laborer center in Pasadena. Ms. Mateo, now a lawyer, was born in Mexico and has lived in the United States for years as an undocumented immigrant.]( Lizbeth Mateo in her office in a day laborer center in Pasadena. Ms. Mateo, now a lawyer, was born in Mexico and has lived in the United States for years as an undocumented immigrant. Emily Berl for The New York Times [A Defender of the Constitution, With No Legal Right to Live Here]( By JENNIFER MEDINA Leading a new wave of defiant activism, Lizbeth Mateo is one of a few undocumented immigrants working as a lawyer in immigration courts. ADVERTISEMENT [] John Taggart for The New York Times Connect with us. Join us at 9 p.m. Eastern on Wednesdays as we examine topics related to race and culture on The Times’s[Facebook page](. Our correspondents Rachel Swarns and John Eligon were joined this week by their colleagues Greg Howard and Lisa Godwin. They discussed incidents in which they believe they were mistreated because of their race. [Their stories]( including one about walking on the sidewalks of New York, were featured in last week’s newsletter. [[Watch]( Like Race/Related? Tell us what you’d like to see by writing to racerelated@nytimes.com, and help us grow by forwarding our newsletter to five of your friends and have them sign up at: [( Is your college student home for the summer but changed by a university environment, with political or social views you don’t recognize? Or are you a college student who returned home to find yourself at odds with your parents on topics like gender, race, sex or the Trump administration? How have those conversations played out at home? 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[Meechy Monroe, a YouTube Star for Her Natural Hair Lessons, Dies at 32]( By AMISHA PADNANI Ms. Monroe achieved online fame with style tutorials that empowered black women to forgo harsh chemicals and embrace the so-called natural hair movement. [When Syria Came to Fresno: Refugees Test Limits of Outstretched Hand]( By MIRIAM JORDAN Once in the United States, the new arrivals sometimes land in towns that are not exactly prepared for them. FOLLOW RACE/RELATED [Instagram] [racerelated]( Get more [NYTimes.com newsletters »]( | Get unlimited access to NYTimes.com and our NYTimes apps. [Subscribe »]( ABOUT THIS EMAIL You received this message because you signed up for NYTimes.com's Race/Related newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Manage Subscriptions]( | [Change Your Email]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Contact]( | [Advertise]( Copyright 2017 The New York Times Company 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018