April 26, 2017
“I AM A MAN”
by Marcellous Lovelace
In 1968, after years of complaints about poor pay and dangerous conditions, two Memphis sanitation workers were crushed to death in a garbage compactor. 10 days later 1,300 black sanitation workers met and agreed to strike and over the coming weeks faced escalating police retaliation. In an address to the strikers Rev. James Lawson said “For at the heart of racism is the idea that a man is not a man, that a person is not a person. You are human beings. You are men. You deserve dignity,” and the phrase “I AM a man” became the rallying cry. In 2014 Chicago artist Marcellous Lovelace used his “modern graffiti style” to transform the 1968 photography of Richard L. Copley into this powerful message to a new generation. Lovelace’s design was installed on this South Main Street wall by Memphis artist BLK75. @marcellouslovelace