Tennessee – Sanitation Workers Join Thousands in March to Protect Voting Rights
Memphis sanitation worker Rodriguez Lobbins (center), a member of AFSCME Local 1733, speaks at the Alabama state Capitol in March. Lobbins was one of thousands who participated in a re-enactment of the historic Selma-to-Montgomery march of 1965. From left to right are fellow AFSCME members Felton Shy, Debbie Hines, Hebert James, and Larry Pirtle. (Photo by Khalid Naji Allah)
AFSCME members, Sec.-Treas. Lee Saunders, Rev. Al Sharpton and thousands of other activists this March reenacted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic march from Selma to Montgomery.
The marchers — representing unions, and civil rights and faith organizations — showed their solidarity in the face of right-wing attacks on voting rights and immigrants. Participants, including members of AFSCME Local 1733, Georgia Local 3 and Local 1644, took turns marching portions of the 54-mile route from Selma to Montgomery as Dr. King did in 1965. Once they arrived in Montgomery, they took part in workshops and rallies over several days.
Rodriguez Lobbins, a sanitation worker for the city of Memphis, felt the weight of Dr. King’s legacy. “I’m taking action to stop those forces who want to roll back Dr. King’s work and the progress we’ve made over the last four decades,” Lobbins said. “We are united in this struggle.”
Saunders rallied the marchers, calling out politicians who claim their attempts to pass laws disenfranchising voters are an effort to end voter fraud. “It’s really about ending the right to vote — stealing that right from people who don’t look like them and who don’t share their philosophy that the poor should be faceless, voiceless and powerless,” he said. “But we refuse to let them do it.”
Dr. King’s 1965 Selma to Montgomery march called international attention to oppressive laws in the South that prevented African-Americans from voting. Upon arriving in Montgomery, after an arduous journey during which he and other marchers peacefully resisted acts of police brutality, Dr. King delivered his famous “How Long, Not Long” speech on the steps of Alabama’s state Capitol.
