Jordan Beard
Mrs. Laney
English III
10 April 2014
“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” Research Paper Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” is considered to be one of his most powerful and effective speeches, considering that it gave not only the black community of Memphis, TN, but all supporters of the nation, the courage to continue a long journey for freedom. His figure as a speaker and a leader had a positive impacting effect on the nation as a whole.
On February 1, 1968, during a heavy rainstorm in Memphis, two black sanitation workers, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, were crushed to death by a faulty garbage truck compactor to stay out of the rain (“Martin Luther King Jr”). The City of Memphis, under Mayor Henry Loeb, in order to preserve money in the economy, had continued to use this old and outdated machinery in the Public Works Department when it should have been discarded
(Honey). “The city paid most of its 1,300 sanitation workers a minimum wage of one dollar and sixty cents per hour; they worked until their routes were done, often putting in sixty hours a week at forty hours of pay” (Honey). The wages of these workers were so low that they were forced to live on welfare as well as food stamps to simply live day to day and feed their families (“Sanitation Workers Strike”). The city provided unskilled black workers with no job benefits, no access to supervisory jobs, no rights or respect and minimal health coverage. The families of both Cole and Walker received only small payments from the city government who claimed that the employees were not covered by Tennessee’s workmen’s compensation law (“Memphis, Tennessee”). In another occurrence on February 1, also due to the weather, 22 black sewer workers were sent home without pay while their white supervisors were allowed to work for the day earning their usual wages (“Martin Luther King Jr”).
The union chapter of the sanitation workers, Local 1733 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), held a meeting for a strike on February 11, 1968 where union organizer, Thomas Oliver “T.O.” Jones explained to over 400 workers that the city refused to meet their demands and that changes needed to be made immediately (“Memphis, Tennessee”). As a result, “Almost 1,200 of the city's 1,300 Public Works laborers did not report to work on Monday, Feb. 12, 1968 -- the first day of the strike and Abraham Lincoln's birthday. Only 34 of the city's 180 garbage trucks were able to operate that day. Officially, the union demanded pay raises, overtime pay, union recognition, union dues check off, improved grievance procedure and improved job safety” (Yellin). On the first day of the strike, Mayor Loeb stressed that he didn't want to begin his term in office by getting involved in confrontations with a union, especially that of black garbage men (Yellin). Yellin states that Loeb “ –promptly declared the strike illegal under a 1966 local court injunction forbidding AFSCME from striking against the city or trying to picket in support of any contract demands” (Yellin). On February 13,1968 Mayor Loeb and Charles Blackburn, the city's director of the Public Works Department, held a meeting with T.O. Jones and several other national union leaders who were informed of the strike the day before and flew out to Memphis to support the striking workers. The mayor held to his position and, once again, confirmed the strike illegal and refused to reason with the union (Yellin).
About a week later on February 22, sanitation workers and supporters held a sit-in at city hall where they tried to convince the City Council to notice their union and suggest a wage increase. However, Mayor Loeb rejected the City Council’s vote (“Memphis, Tennessee”). “By the end of February, what had been a local labor dispute was transforming into a civil rights struggle. Though Loeb put garbage trucks back on the street manned by white supervisors and non-strikers with police escorts, over 1,000 blacks were striking” (“Memphis, Tennessee”). On February 23, union leaders and ministers marched through downtown Memphis in protest, where the first occurrence of police brutality had been reported. During the march, several protestors began to rock escort police cars, resulting in riot police to retaliate with clubs and mace (“Memphis, Tennessee”).
The day after the march, black community leaders gathered and formed an organization they named Community on the Move for Equality (COME) under the administration of minister Reverend James Lawson, a longtime partner of Dr. King. COME, taking head of the strike and protest movement, promoted direct, but nonviolent action to fill jails and bring widespread attention to the protest (“Sanitation Workers Strike”). “By the beginning of March, local high school and college students, nearly a quarter of them white, were participating alongside garbage workers in daily marches; and over one hundred people, including several ministers, had been arrested” (“Sanitation Workers Strike”). To put even more pressure on the mayor and City Council to recognize the demands of the union, COME organized boycotts of Memphis stores and newspapers that put the strikers in a negative light (“Memphis, Tennessee”).
As the strike lengthened, it began to receive national attention and support. On March 18, at the request of Reverend Lawson, Dr. King came to Memphis to support the strike as part of his Poor People’s Campaign at Mason Temple (Yellin). “At that time King was involved in planning with other civil rights workers the Poor People's Campaign for economic opportunity and equality. He was also zigzagging by airplane through the eastern United States meeting speaking engagements and attending important social events as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)” (“Martin Luther King Jr”). Surely this gave the black community of Memphis feelings of importance and accomplishment, as well as encouragement to keep pushing forward. “‘He was in the middle of planning his Poor People's Campaign and a march on Washington for the spring,’ says Taylor Rogers of King. ‘So it was a great feeling that he would lay aside everything and stop by Memphis to see about us: the sanitation workers, the people on the bottom of the ladder that most people want to ignore’” (Yellin). King encouraged supporters of the strike to go on a city wide work stoppage and promised to return that upcoming Friday, March 22, to lead them throughout the city of Memphis to protest (“Sanitation Workers Strike”).
On the day of the scheduled march, however, a severe snowstorm resulted in the cancellation of King’s return to Memphis, causing it to be rescheduled for Thursday, March 28 from Clayborn Temple to City Hall (Yellin). On the day of the march, it was estimated that about 22,000 skipped school to participate. When King arrived, he was met with a tense and anxious crowd. As he and Reverend Lawson began to lead the march, it was quickly called off as a result of violence beginning to stir up in the crowd. King was then taken away to a nearby hotel, and Lawson ordered the crowd to return to the church (“Sanitation Workers Strike”). “In the chaos that followed, downtown shops were looted and a 16-year-old was shot and killed by a policeman. Police followed demonstrators back to the Clayborn Temple, entered the church, released tear gas inside the sanctuary, and clubbed people as they lay on the floor to get fresh air” (“Sanitation Workers Strike”). By the end of the day, 280 individuals were arrested and at least 60 injured. That night, martial law and a 7 p.m. curfew were enforced by Mayor Loeb, while bringing in 4,000 National Guardsmen (“Memphis, Tennessee”). On the following day of the march, “—the local media, influenced by reports from FBI and police officials, began a smear campaign against King, blaming him for the violence that occurred at the previous day’s march” (“Memphis, Tennessee”). Newspapers from the New York Times to local newspapers in Memphis associated the violent march to King’s poor people’s campaign. This confirmed what the nation had already thought about King—that he was associated with rioting and violence (Oates 480). An article in the Memphis Commercial Appeal stated: “‘Dr. King’s pose as a leader of a non-violent movement has been shattered. He now has the entire nation doubting his word when he insists that his April project…can be peaceful…Furthermore, he wrecked his reputation as a leader as he took off at high speed when violence occurred, instead of trying to use his persuasive prestige to stop it’” (Oates 480).
The violent disruption of the march made King consider not returning to Memphis. However, he decided that it would be necessary for him to return and continue with the nonviolent movement for justice to be successful (“Sanitation Workers Strike”). After King gained the support of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), he returned to Memphis on April 3. After his arrival, his exhaustion caused him to develop a sore throat and fever. He then asked close friend and partner, Ralph Abernathy, to fill in for him at a scheduled meeting at Bishop Charles Mason Temple. Abernathy agreed, but after seeing the disappointment of the audience who had come to hear the words of Dr. King, Abernathy contacted King and prompted him to come down and speak to the crowd. After King arrived, he gave one of his most powerful and famous speeches, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” (I’ve Been to the Mountaintop).
In King’s speech, his strong use of metaphors, ethos, and pathos allowed him to truly connect with the audience and convey a powerful message to the people of Memphis. The use of metaphors in King’s speech is probably the most important and effective method. He structures the speech into three main, metaphorical points; the “Sick Nation”, “The Good Samaritan”, and “The Mountaintop/Promised Land”. The “Sick Nation” metaphor portrays how the nation is in trouble because of its lack of justice and racial equality, “The Good Samaritan” metaphor explains the role of the African American community in the solution to fixing the nation, finally, the “Mountaintop/Promised Land” metaphor reveals how King will help them overcome and lead them in the right direction. Using this technique, King was able to design a “blueprint” for America’s plan and need for social change. The use of metaphors throughout the speech also directly correlates with the events happening in Memphis and the Civil Rights’ Movement. This appealed to the audience in a more personal way that helped them understand how much of a necessity change was (“A Metaphor Criticism”). Another effective method King used throughout his speech was his use of pathos. His ability to appeal to the feelings and emotions of the audience made his speech more captivating. This is mostly portrayed in how he emphasizes on how important and meaningful it is for him to be in Memphis. In his parallelism, “But I wouldn’t stop there” (King), he appeals to pathos by stating how he would ask God to allow him to live in the second half of the twentieth century rather than living in great periods in history, “Strangely enough, I would turn to the Almighty and say, ‘If you allow me to live just a few years in the second half of the century, I will be happy’” (King). He also appeals to pathos this way by stating; “Now I’m just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period, to see what is unfolding. And I’m happy that he’s allowed me to be in Memphis” (King). Knowing the struggles and difficulties of the black community, he stresses his devotion to being there for them. Another way he appeals to pathos is passionately stressing that death is among the least of his worries, and that leading them to something and/or somewhere better means more to him than receiving death threats. He says, “And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats…or what would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers…But I’m not concerned with that now. I just want to do God’s will…” (King) King was able to appeal to pathos mostly through his unselfishness and strong concern for his people, establishing a bond that also appealed to ethos because of his moral and leading “father-like” character. King appeals to ethos not only because of his moral character but more so for his religious stature. His authority as a reverend and knowledge of the Bible lends him trustworthy to a mostly Christian audience. Referring to the troubles and problems of the nation as well as the Bible establishes trust because he is not oblivious to their struggles and only thinking about himself, “…so often preachers aren’t concerned about anything but themselves…It’s all right to talk about the New Jerusalem, but one day God’s preacher must talk about the new New York, the new Atlanta…the new Memphis, Tennessee. That is what we have to do” (King). He also appealed to ethos by relating the struggles of the sanitation workers to the Bible, “But then the Good Samaritan came by, and he reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’ That’s the question before you tonight…’If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?’” (King) He uses the Bible to remind people to have compassion when it comes to the suffering of others, which in turn makes him a trustworthy figure. His most powerful form of ethos is established through his “Promised Land” metaphor. Not only does he allude to the Bible, but his strong passion for leading his people as Moses did, makes his audience feel encouraged and protected, “But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land…I’m not worried about anything; I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord” (King). His confident sense of leadership made it easier for the black community to trust him to push them forward.
Unfortunately, this would be the last speech the beloved Civil Rights leader would give. On the evening of April 4, 1968, one day after his speech, King was assassinated in Memphis on his hotel balcony (“Memphis, Tennessee”).
King’s murder led to great turmoil in Memphis and across the country (“Memphis, Tennessee”). However, “Despite the national crisis following Dr. King’s death, Mayor Loeb still refused to sign a union contract or accept deduction of union dues from worker paychecks” (Honey). Because of his racially discriminative upbringing and beliefs, he refused to compromise with the black employees, even with President Lyndon Baines Johnson, Tennessee Governor Buford Ellington, and the US Labor Department urging him to do so (Honey).
On April 5, a large group of black and white clergy members walked from St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral to Mayor Loeb's office in City Hall and introduced a statement urging him to end the strike and recognize the union’s demands (Yellin). As a result, President Johnson sent the undersecretary of labor, James J. Reynolds, to Memphis to quickly settle the strike. The City Council and white businessmen, who had been affected by the boycotts, also prompted Loeb to put the strike to an end (“Memphis, Tennessee”).
By April 6, negotiation between the city and the union was in progress. On April 8, about 42,000 people joined Coretta Scott King, SCLC members, and union leaders in a march through Memphis in King’s honor, where they also demanded that Loeb agree to the union’s requests (“Memphis, Tennessee”). Finally, on Tuesday April 16, union leaders and Loeb established an agreement that met most of the union’s demands. The City Council, by a vote of 12 to 1, followed a “memorandum of understanding” that fairly recognized the demands of the union. Later that night, strikers and supporters read the agreement and voted to accept. The sanitation workers had finally won the strike, and the next morning, the men resumed back to their duties (Yellin).
For the struggling black community in Memphis, TN, the words of Dr. Martin Luther King were of great hope and promise. His powerful and inspiring message, as well as his strong devotion, needed encouragement and constructing leadership gave all African Americans a sense of direction and purpose, and yielded them to a common goal that before seemed almost unachievable.

Works Cited
Honey, Michael K. "Introductory Essay." Omeka RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.

King, Martin L. "I’ve Been to the Mountaintop." I’ve Been to the Mountaintop. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.

"I’ve Been to the Mountaintop (3 April 1968)." I’ve Been to the Mountaintop (3 April 1968). N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.

""I've Been to the Mountaintop: A Metaphor Criticism"" "I've Been to the Mountaintop" N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.

"Martin Luther King, Jr., and Memphis Sanitation Workers." National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.

"Sanitation Workers Strike (1968)." Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike (1968). N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.

"Memphis, Tennessee: Sanitation Workers Strike, 1968." Global Nonviolent Action Database. N.p., 09 Dec. 2010. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.

Oates, Stephen B. Let the Trumpet Sound: A Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: HarperPerennial, 1994. Print.

Yellin, Emily. "American RadioWorks - King's Last March." American RadioWorks - King's Last March. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.