them >> the situation in memphis was local. that sense they were desperate led them to accept the conditions until they got to be intolerable and then they went on strike. >> the garbage collectors predominately negr want higher pay. >> public employees cannot strike. i suggest you go back to work. >> police used riot control gas and night stick its to break up a disturbance against the striking garbageman. >> over a thousand of us weres maced and marched up here. it was broken up. that became the cry essentially for the entire negro community to say the fight was on. >> i saw the strike as part of the emerging movement of non-violence in the united states. and that's the way king saw it as well. >> the vast majority of negros