On March 24th, 2018, I was honored to travel to Memphis, TN as the guest of the City of Memphis and the Mayor, as the official keynote speaker on the 50th anniversary of the Sanitation Workers Strike there.
The I AM A MAN Honors Ceremony where I spoke that evening featured a whose who from the political, business, ecumenical, community and civil rights leadership there, but most importantly paid tribute to the brave and proud sanitation workers whose dignity was on the line back in 1968. It was this Sanitation Worker’s Strike that marked the launch of the Poor People’s Campaign, and the tragic assassination of the movement’s leader, and the most prophetic voice of the 20th century, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Needless to say, it was a highlight of my professional life, and personal life mission, to be asked to keynote address an audience of more than a thousand leaders in Memphis, TN, on the 50th Anniversary of Dr. King’s Sanitation Worker’s Strike. Other VIPs, leaders and honorees present on this same evening included U.S. Senator Cory Booker, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, Ambassador Andrew Young, Rev. Jesse Jackson and a host of others.
And today, the unfinished work continues. This is precisely why Operation HOPE has launched a nationwide expansion of the HOPE Inside Network, including a HOPE Inside sponsored by First Tennessee Bank at Mason Temple COGIC Church. Mason Temple is the location of the final speech of Dr. King, before his tragic assassination.
Let’s go…
John Hope Bryant, founder, Operation HOPE