Film Screening: At the River I Stand

Memphis Sanitation Workers marched during a strike for better wages and working conditions. March, 1968.
Memphis Sanitation Workers marched during a strike for better wages and working conditions. March, 1968.

Memphis, Spring 1968 marked the dramatic climax of the Civil Rights movement. At the River I Stand skilfully reconstructs the two eventful months that transformed a strike by Memphis sanitation workers into a national conflagration, and disentangles the complex historical forces that came together with the inevitability of tragedy at the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Their slogan ‘I am a Man’ is featured in the exhibition Glen Ligon: Encounters and Collisions.

At the River I Stand, Dir. David Appleby, Allison Graham & Steven Ross (1993), 56 mins

This moving documentary recounts the two months leading to Martin Luther King Jr.'s death in 1968, coinciding with the 65-day strike of 1300 Memphis sanitation workers.

Presented in collaboration with the Department of American and Canadian Studies, The University of Nottingham.

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