The Memphis sanitation strike began in February 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. Following years of poor pay and dangerous working conditions, and provoked by the crushing to death of workers Echol Cole and Robert Walker in garbage compactors, over 700 of the 1300 black sanitation workers met on Sunday, February 11, and agreed to strike. They then did not turn out for work on the following day. They also sought to join the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 1733. The sanitation strike was also the reason for Martin Luther King Jr.'s presence in Memphis, where he was assassinated.
Memphis's mayor, Henry Loeb, declared the strike illegal and refused to meet with local black leaders (he did meet with AFSCME's national officers). Heavily redacted files released in 2012 suggest that the FBI monitored the strike and increased its operations in Memphis during 1968.