Elmore Nickleberry

Elmore Egion Nickleberry (December 15, 1931 – December 30, 2023) was an American sanitation worker and civil rights activist who went on strike after Echol Cole and Robert Walker were killed in a truck malfunction accident. He marched alongside the reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. until he was assassinated on April 4, 1968; the day after Dr. King made the speech “I’ve Been To The Mountaintop”.

Early life He was born on December 15, 1931, to Emma and Earl Nickleberry. One of his grandfathers was enslaved. In sixth grade he dropped out of school and joined his father once in a while to pick cotton.

Military career He was a veteran of the Eighth Army Armored Division during the Korean War, serving as a corporal. At the age of 22, in 1953, he returned home and got a job working for the city of Memphis. He claimed that the military treated him better than the city's sanitation department due to Jim Crow's laws being in effect at that time.

Career with the City of Memphis Nickleberry started to work for the city of Memphis, Tennessee's sanitation department after military service, but there was job scarcity for African Americans in the South due to segregation. He was paid very little. Homeowners called him "garbage man" and hated it because he thought he himself was garbage.

He died on December 30, 2023