Cleophus Smith, a Memphis sanitation worker and minister, keeps up fight for rights
Smith is one of the surviving workers whose strike brought Martin Luther King Jr. to Tennessee in 1968.
Cleophus Smith was in the congregation on April 3, 1968, as Martin Luther King Jr. preached his last sermon at the Church of God in Christ headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee.
“From the speech he made, we had hope that there was going to be a brighter day ahead, ” said Smith, 75, one of two surviving sanitation workers remaining on the job who were involved in the two-month workers’ strike in 1968.
King’s last encouragement to the workers came in that final sermon. He compared their situation to the parable of the good Samaritan: “The question is not, If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me? The question is, If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?”
