MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A group of nearly 100 people sat in the pews of St. Mary's Cathedral Sunday at 3pm to watch a new documentary in honor of MLK Memorial Day. Among the attendees was Civil Rights Movement icon, James Lawson.
The film, titled "From Cathedral to City Hall: A Documentary for Justice " tells of the March that clergy members made on April 5th, 1968 from St. Mary's Cathedral to Memphis City Hall to demand that—then Mayor Henry Loeb—give justice for sanitation workers on strike in Memphis.
The march was organized the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated just a few miles away at the Lorraine Motel on April 4th, 1968.
The walk was reproduced in 2018, 50 years after the original, but this time the current mayor, Jim Strickland, joined in.
"We think that young people especially need to know not only how things were but who stood up and gave their lives for justice like Dr. King and many others," said Dr. Mark Matheny, Retired Methodist Minister and Co-Chair of Voices for Justice-Mid-South, "We also want to rekindle the sense that faith leaders coming together during times of crisis, as they were in '68, is still important."
The film will be made available for free to the public on Monday, April 4 on the Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee website and on their Facebook page.