mason temple in memphis was hacked. memphis was a city in mourning, grappling with unrest over the deaths of two black employees of a memphis department of public work. employees that were crushed to death while taking cover from severe weather. today marks the 55th anniversary of their deaths. today, under the slogan i am a man, more than 1000 black appointees were on strike, and tensions were rising. despite a bad thunderstorm that april 9th, the room was filled. there was one man that the crowd wanted to hear from. martin luther king junior, who visited memphis twice before. he was trying to help the black workers get a living wage, and decent working conditions. that night, he was back. he was delivering what would be his final speech, the night before he was assassinated. dr. king began his famous mountaintop speech by saying
know how long. they didn t know how long it would be when they boycotted it in the 50s. it is not about a timetable. it is about we cannot continue to live under these double standards, and under these conditions. those references to the bus boycott against segregation, which proceeded the 1964 civil rights act, along discrimination and public space, that is reference to hard-line civil rights victories. they were meant to solve systemic problems in the american social fabric. those are ones that specifically disenfranchised black people. reverend sharpton, nichols family, and the attorneys have reminded us over the past month, that america has a policing problem. in our police departments, something is broken. in memphis alone, where black people make up 65% of the city s population, they make up 86% of police use of force cases. they are overrepresented among these victims by a lot. to many people that would
visited memphis twice before. he was trying to help the black workers get a living wage, and decent working conditions. that night, he was back. he was delivering what would be his final speech, the night before he was assassinated. dr. king began his famous mountaintop speech by saying that something is happening in memphis, something is happening in our world. we have been forced to a point where we are going to have to struggle. the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history. the demands that they have forced them. survival, demands that we grapple with them. the human rights revolution. is something getting done? to bring the colored people from the world out of their long years of poverty. the long years of neglect, the whole world is doomed. today in memphis, 100 people gathered at mississippi boulevard christian church, just a few miles from the
gathered at mississippi boulevard christian church, just a few miles from the historic bishop charles nation base and temple, where king delivered that final speech. the room, again, it was packed. the city was again in mourning. this time, over the death of 29 year old tyre nichols, a black man whose family calls him a beautiful soul, who died last month from injuries three days after five black memphis police officers brutally beat him. nichols family and friends, mothers of other black people slain by police, government officials across the country, even vice president kamala harris. they were all there today for tyre nichols funeral. like that night in april, 1968, when there was a thunderstorm, nichols loved ones and supporters braved an ice storm today in order to gather in that church and honor his life, and to declare, as they did in a press conference last night, in the spirit of that strike in memphis, april of 1968, they declared i am a man.
our history is that all connected to the experiences that we are having. let s remember, what is historic today is not that tyre nichols is dead. that is common. what is historic is that anybody is paying any price for it. that is what is historic. it was historic when officers went down for a murder for george floyd s killing. that was historic. being killed by police for driving while black, that is not. i understand where you are coming from, and i understand how memphis is being held up, and that this should be a template, this alacrity which which systems move, to charge these officers, to fire these officers, to release the videotape, that should be a model for the nation, for the next time that a black person is killed by police. it s the next time but the expectation that oh yes, there