Tennessee – In Memoriam: Taylor Rogers
Taylor Rogers meets U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solís during a June 2011 celebration honoring the 1968 Memphis sanitation workers. (Photo by Gil Michaels)
Taylor Rogers, a leader in the historic 1968 strike to win recognition for 1,300 African-American sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn. and who later became president of Local 1733, passed away Nov. 12. He was 85.
Their 64-day struggle, marked by their iconic protest signs that simply said, “I Am a Man,” ignited a movement that uniquely merged the labor, civil rights and religious communities. Today it inspires a Main Street movement of citizens across the country joining together to fight for workers’ rights wherever they are threatened.
“We will always remember Taylor for his role in waking up a nation to the evils of economic injustice and racial discrimination,” said AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee.
Describing himself as “just another guy” with eight children to support and a mortgage to pay, Rogers and his co-workers tried to organize, but were rebuffed by the city. They decided to strike after two co-workers were killed in a trash compactor. “We had no union, no vacation, no benefits, no pension, no overtime,” he said in an interview 14 years ago. “We had to be united to get where we wanted to go. The union helped us do that.”
During their strike, Rogers and his fellow workers were beaten, gassed and jailed, as was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was killed in Memphis while supporting the strike. But the workers won their collective bargaining rights and recognition of their union. Last year, the 1,300 strikers were officially inducted into the U.S. Department of Labor’s Labor Hall of Fame – the first time a group of workers has been included for taking collective action.
After he retired, Rogers continued to advocate for workers’ rights, and helped workers in Richmond, Ind., organize and successfully form Local 1791 in 2000. Later, he also established a unit for AFSCME retirees, which he served as president.
