Earnest Withers: I AM A MAN

“I Am A Man” photo series exhibit is open daily to the public from 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., now through October 12.

Ernest Withers’s famous photographs of the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers strike illustrate the dignity of workers’ activism, which still feels inspirational decades later.

Holding placards with the simple but powerful slogan “I Am A Man,” the Memphis sanitation workers marched from Clayborn Temple to city hall every day in a nonviolent demonstration that dramatized the need to treat all labor with respect.

This summer, MoSH is re-exhibiting these powerful and important images that speak to the African American history of Memphis. Last shown at the museum in 2010, the photographs are a reminder of why Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came to Memphis and tragically lost his life, as he supported striking workers in their pursuit of equality and economic justice.

These Ernest Withers photos were given to the museum as a gift by the Assisi Foundation of Memphis.