Action News 5: “Bill Lucy, the prolific labor and civil rights leader, has died at age 90.
Lucy popularized the phrase “I Am a Man,” which became the slogan of the 1968 Memphis sanitation workers strike.
He said of the historic, effective four-word phrase, “While it means different things, I’m sure, to different people, it meant I’m standing up for my rights; I will speak out; I am speaking back to someone who I have historically held fear of; and I’m, I’m confronting the system. And I’m, I’m not asking for a whole lot, just to be treated with respect and dignity. And we didn’t have any idea that this thing would hit like it hit.””