'I May Not Get There With You': An Eyewitness Account Of MLK's Final Days By Abe Selby | NPR Update RequiredTo play audio, update browser or Flash plugin. A young Clara Jean Ester graduated from Memphis State College, now known as the University of Memphis. Now, Ester is a retired organizer and Methodist deaconess in Mobile, Ala. Clara Jean Ester Clara Jean Ester was a college student at Memphis State College in Tennessee when she bore witness to a series of pivotal moments in civil rights history. As a junior, Ester joined the Memphis Sanitation Strike in 1968, alongside African American sanitation workers who were calling to demand better working conditions and higher wages.