Analysis Of Laurie B Green's Article 'I Am A Man'

Laurie B. Green from the University of Texas at Austin studies the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike during the Civil Rights Movement in her article,” Race, Gender, and Labor in the 1960’s Memphis: “I AM A MAN” and the Meaning of Freedom”. Laurie Green opens up her article immediately showcasing African American workers carrying signs stating,” I AM A MAN” while on the other side of the sheet stood white national guardsman with their bayonets ready. Green goes onto to explain how that “I AM A MAN” statement was a complex and critical statement against Memphis, 222 showed anger over big city plantation mentality. She goes on to explain how “I AM A MAN” went on to include African American women also, in the fight for rights. Green then argues

that the “black freedom movement” receives little scholarly attention outside of biographies and black theology, and sets up the point of this essay to focus on this area.
Green goes on to explain how African Americans compared urban attitudes to planation mentality. She argues that the definition of plantation mentality as the “perpetuation and mutability of racial ideology and practices in the city” (467). Green argues Memphis’s closeness to the Delta cotton culture led to this labeling. Green explains how plantation mentality had a second meaning which was used against the “submissive” or “fearful” African Americans who submitted to white domination. Green labels this as feminizing the African Americans who gave in, while those who stood against it were “men”. Green goes on to explain how “I AM A MAN” humanized the sanitation workers, who were called the “walking Buzzards”. This slogan explained what it meant to be a man, and stood against the paternalistic treatment of white people. Green goes on to explain how “I AM A MAN” used gender connotations to fight against the emasculation of African American men and unburden African American women.
Green shifts gears in this part of the article, to talking about RCA’s tv plant in Memphis in 1965. RCA decided to move there because of the calm racial tensions. Green points out how RCA eventually closed for five years due to unforeseen strikes from their women workers. Green points out how in March 1967 women from both races participated in strikes due to inhumane work quotas, and no access to bathrooms during work hours. This strike eventually merged with the sanitation strikes. Green then goes on to explain how black theology gave the people a mouthpiece to argue against injustices.
Green moves on from RCA and starts explaining how Memphis’s proximity to the Mississippi Delta caused several large companies to open factories in the area, which lead to open factories to a huge non-skilled labor force, which lead to several migrants pouring into Memphis. 22222 Green gives us theses details to explain the political arena in the 1950’s, was ruled by a Democrat named Boss Edward Crump’s death, and Brown v. Board of Education which led to a shift in the politics of Memphis, which helped black activist. 22222 Green goes on to point out how this devolved when in 1959 victory of a proud segregationist Henry Web.
Laurie Green moves on to discuss briefly the movements before the 1968 sanitation workers riot explaining how the movements before gave more steam to the friction in Memphis. Green then goes on to explain how most African Americans lived below the poverty line, which fueled the black freedom movement. According to Green, each year the strikes and movements were increasing and while this was taking place the amount of African American women in the workforce also increased rapidly. Green then explores the life of a migrant worker from rural Mississippi named Sally Turner. Mrs. Turner pointed out ways in which African American women were mistreated like no water fountains, being forced into certain jobs, and low wages. Green ends her portion on Mrs. Turner by telling how she left sharecropping and her husband 2222.
Ms.

Green goes on to give another account of an African American woman named Hazel Mcgee. Mcgee accounts how she went on strike with her husband who was a sanitation worker. Mcgee goes on to explain in her account how white and black women were treated differently. Green ends this section of the article by visiting an interview by an African American woman named Naomi Jones, who explains the sexual harassment that black women received from male supervisors. Jones interview went on to explain went on to explain how black theology shifted to include universal rights of all men.
Green moves her article to black theology. Green argues that black theology gave them a vision of freedom and personal salvation. After the summary of black theology, Green focuses her article back to the Civil Rights Movement of 1964. She explains how Title IX was pushed back a year until 1965. In the Memphis area, companies pushed back against the Title IX regulations and many complaints were filed against them. Green goes on to explain how African Americans had a hard time getting hired or promoted, including skilled African American workers. This goes on to give sanitation workers more

power.
Laurie Green returns her article to focus on the strikes and movements before the sanitation worker’s strike. Green points out some details about the sanitation workers. She notes that they were all African American, the supervisors were white, and all worked lifting 55 gallon cans all day. Laurie Green gives more gruesome details about the working conditions of the sanitation workers including wearing clothes that were to big in size ad coming home covered in maggots.
She then details the several failed strikes before the major one that occurred in 1968. In 1968 two instances sparked the sanitation workers strike. The first instance was during a rainstorm and all African American workers were sent home without pay. While the whites that stayed out did receive pay. Two days later, two African Americans were crushed in a garbage compactor hiding from the rainstorm.
Green goes on to explain how the strike went from workers vs.

Mayor Loeb to violence. During a march, a woman said that a police car ran over her foot. This caused the strikers to start shaking the car. This caused cops to start macing, clubbing, and chasing down strikers. One of the strikers that was maced was Reverend Jackson. Jackson was able to empower more and minister to the community leaders to get behind the strike. Green goes on to explain how Martin Luther King’s assassination sparked riots. After all of the incidents President Johnson’s Secretary of Labor , convinced Mayor Loeb to recognize the Sanitation Workers Union, which ended the strike. Green’s article ends with her stating the importance of the slogan “I AM A MAN” to African American men and

women.
Green’s article provides an ample amount of information on the Sanitation Workers Strike. One of the aspects of I liked about the article was the interviews of the people who lived during and participated in the strikes. The women that Green interviewed during the article gave great insight on the strikes. I also liked the few times Green mentioned black theology. With all the good from the article there are some issues I had with it. The structure of this article is confusing, Green bounces around to different topics and different time periods. I think this article could have been structured better. Another issue I had with this article were the gender parts of this article.