Friday, June 20, 2025
On April 3, 1968, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visited striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn. He was assassinated the next day.
On Monday, the 54th anniversary of King’s assassination, representatives of two Long Beach churches — St. James-Jerusalem Episcopal and New Life Church of Christ — visited the city’s Sanitation Department to offer the workers sandwiches, drinks, snacks, dessert and gifts, honoring King’s memory and the work he did on behalf of the Memphis workers.
Barbara Horn, a member of St. James-Jerusalem and one of the organizers of the get-together, called the Long Beach sanitation workers “the unsung heroes” of the city.
“It’s fitting, because he was fighting for sanitation workers before he died,” Horn said of King. “They’re all so hard-working, and keep the entire city clean.”
About 30 workers and drivers attended, starting at 11 a.m. In addition to the food, they were presented with index cards imprinted with King’s quotes. There were also signs with photos of King and descriptions and quotes of what he stood for and the importance of the event.
At the end of the table of food, there was a laminated piece of paper, standing upright in the line of sight, with the history of what happened in Memphis. Workers stopped to read it before eating their lunch.
New Life Church of Christ, which has a mostly Black congregation, and St. James-Jerusalem Episcopal Church, which is mostly white, and their pastors, the Revs. Mark Moses and Susan Bock, respectively, have joined forces to honor the sanitation workers each April 4 since 2018, though they missed a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Some of the things [King] fought for are still around today,” Moses said. “We need to support sanitation workers and make sure they get respect. We have progressed some, but we still have a way to go.”
Jamel Taylor, 39, and Terrence Harris, 56, both assistant sanitation superintendents, have been with the department for 20 and 26 years, respectively. They agreed that the workers were deserving of recognition, because their working conditions — including the weather — don’t make their jobs highly desired, but the community shows its support.
Jeorking Welker, 42, a driver for the department who has been working full-time for the past two years and on and off since he was a teenager, said that the day meant a lot to him, and it isn’t taken lightly.
“It’s phenomenal,” Welker said. “We all appreciate it. It really shows respect, because a lot of the time we can get overlooked and underappreciated.”
