Henry Loeb

Henry Loeb III was the mayor of Memphis, Tennessee for two separate terms in the 1960s, from 1960 through 1963, and 1968 through 1971. He gained national notoriety in his second term for his role in opposing the demands of striking sanitation workers in February 1968. During what came to be known as the Memphis Sanitation Strike, around 1300 African-American members of Local 1733 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees engaged in a 64-day strike for improved wages, working conditions, and union recognition.

This conflict, and racial violence that spread throughout the city in its wake, compelled Martin Luther King, Jr. to visit Memphis in late March of that year, in order to assist AFSCME in their negotiations with Loeb and other city officials and work alongside other Civil Rights leaders in raising consciousness about the low pay and mistreatment suffered by the workers. However, on April 4, Dr King was assassinated, an event that forced a speedy resolution of the strike on the part of the city and that would adversely affect the area's economic and social life for years to come. A drifter named James Earl Ray was later convicted of the killing, although doubts about his guilt remain to this day.

Loeb, a descendant of a wealthy Jewish family (but who converted to the Episcopal Church after assuming his second term in office), was a strong conservative in politics; he received a large part of the criticism for the local police's harsh and often violent treatment of strikers and sympathizers, which included local ministers, schoolchildren, and families of the workers. It was only after the King assassination, and subsequent Federal pressure placed on the city, that he relented in his strong obstinance against the city's recognizing AFSCME. His family remains prominent in Memphis' economic life through [http://www.loebproperties.com/index.asp Loeb Properties] , a development firm; however, Loeb himself eventually left Memphis and moved to Forrest City, Arkansas, some 60 miles westward, where he became mayor there for some time, many years later.

External links

* [http://pictopia.com/perl/gal?process=gallery&gallery_id=6294&provider_id=362&ptp_photo_id=memphiscom:398121 "Memphis Commercial Appeal" photo of Loeb on the day after the MLK assassination]

* [http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/15/1534250 Transcript of "Democracy Now!" interview with strike participants]

* [http://hnn.us/articles/37087.html "King's Last Crusade"--History News Network, George Mason University]

* [http://tapdev.browsermedia.com/cs/articles?article=why_he_was_in_memphis "Why He Was in Memphis"--"The American Prospect"]

* [http://www.posner.com/chapter_one_ktd.htm Excerpt from Gerald Posner's "Killing the Dream : James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr."]

* [http://www.forward.com/articles/9864/ "King's Last Message"--"Jewish Daily Forward"]

* [http://www.afscme.org/about/1548.cfm ASFCME chronology of 1968 strike]

* [http://www.h-net.org/~filmhis/documentary_films/labor.html Review of 1993 documentary film "At The River I Stand"]