Bibliograph

Going down Jericho Road, the Memphis strike, Martin Luther King's last campaign, Michael K. Honey

Type

Label

Going down Jericho Road, the Memphis strike, Martin Luther King's last campaign, Michael K. Honey

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 571-586) and index

Illustrations

platesillustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Going down Jericho Road

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

71812789

Responsibility statement

Michael K. Honey

Review

"Memphis in 1968 was ruled by a paternalistic "plantation mentality" embodied in its good-old-boy mayor, Henry Loeb. Wretched conditions, abusive white supervisors, poor education, and low wages locked most black workers into poverty. Then two sanitation workers, seeking shelter from one of the city's notorious torrential rains, were chewed up like refuse in the back of a faulty truck, igniting a months-long public-employee strike that would shake the nation."

Sub title

the Memphis strike, Martin Luther King's last campaign

Summary

"With novelistic drama and rich scholarly detail, Michael Honey brings to life the magnetic characters who clashed on the Memphis battlefield: the resolute black workers; strike leaders like the impoverished, driven T. O. Jones; black ministers like Martin Luther King's longtime ally, the inspired and dedicated Reverend James Lawson, and his flamboyant colleague, Reverend Ralph Jackson; union men; the first black members of the Memphis city council; dynamic black women like civil rights leader Maxine Smith and community advocate Cornella Crenshaw; and volatile young Black Power advocates like Coby Smith and Charles Cabbage."--BOOK JACKET

Table Of Contents

Labor and civil rights -- A plantation in the city -- Dr. King, labor, and the civil rights movement -- Struggles of the working poor -- Standing at the crossroads -- On strike for respect -- Hambone's meditations : the failure of community -- Testing the social gospel -- Fighting for the working poor -- Minister to the valley : the poor people's campaign -- Baptism by fire -- Ministers and manhood -- Convergence -- Escalation : the youth movement -- "All labor has dignity" -- "Something dreadful" -- Jericho Road is a dangerous road -- Chaos in the bluff city -- "The movement lives or dies in Memphis" -- State of siege -- Shattered dreams and promised lands -- "A crucifixion event" -- Reckonings -- "We have got the victory" -- Epilogue : how we remember King

Classification