The History of MIFA continued The Sanitation Strike On February 12, 1968, sanitation workers of the City of Memphis went on strike for better wages, better working conditions, and the right to have a union represent them. Although the Ministers Association attempted to mediate the dispute between the city and the union, the strike continued, with increasing hostility and bitterness, finally becoming a racial confrontation instead of a labor/management problem. The end occurred only after the tragic assassination on April 4, 1968, of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who had come to Memphis to support the cause of the sanitation workers in response to requests from his friends among the black ministers who were leading the workers' struggle. The aftermath of these events was polarization of the Black and White inhabitants of the city. The crisis accentuated the lack of mutual channels in the community to address genuine concerns, and demonstrated forcefully that the church was unprepared for urban ministry. There was a decided lack of communication, cooperation, organization or structure by which to channel either an immediate response to the crisis, or a long-range plan for change. In spite of the polarization of a large part of the city, feelings of trust had been established between the small but dedicated corps of Black and White ministers and laymen who were working toward a metropolitan coordinating agency. These feelings were developed “in pain and anguish and the turmoil of crisis,” Aldridge wrote. The day following the assassination of Dr. King, the Ministers Association and the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance marched together from St. Mary's Cathedral, where they had been meeting, to City Hall to implore the mayor to settle the strike, and to mourn the death of their fallen comrade. This dramatized the question of the proper role of religion in society. Many of the clergymen involved in this crisis and the march to the mayor's office were also active in the establishment of MIFA. Leading the march was Dean Dimmick, carrying the cathedral's processional cross; marching beside Reverend Henry Starks was Rabbi Wax. In the months to come MIFA, in its efforts to link religion with urban needs, was to encounter distrust and suspicion regarding the role it might assume in the community. The strike, and the participation of many of MIFA's founders in it, played a role in making the new agency's beginnings tenuous and rocky. There are some however, who believe MIFA was aided by the sanitation strike. Annabelle Whittemore realizes that, “If we had tried to get MIFA started at any other time, we would have failed, but the sanitation strike convinced the churches that we really did have problems in this city, and that no single church could solve them alone. There was a role for the religious community as a whole to play.” Preston McDaniel, second President of MIFA's Board of Directors adds that “while MIFA was not begun because of the garbage strike, it accelerated because of it.” Following the strike and the assassination of Dr. King, a well-attended general meeting entitled “Memphis Cares” was held at the Memphis Chicks baseball stadium reinforcing the idea that Memphians needed to continue to work together. Noella Garner, a representative of Church Women United on the early MIFA board, says that “'Memphis Cares' not only emphasized Memphis's willingness to have an ecumenical movement, but it also turned people around. They went in vicious, and came out softened. There was a desire to speak as one voice of the community of God in racial relations.” The primary organizer of “'Memphis Cares” was John T. Fisher, a lay member of Dimmick's congregation and early MIFA volunteer. Frances Loring says that, “In the aftermath of the crisis, MIFA was to be a clearing house. During the strike, there were all sorts of rumors and no place to check their accuracy. There was a decision to build a loose umbrella for the dissemination of information, and for mutual support.” An early MIFA organizer, Waddy West agrees that “no one knew what the others were doing. We needed to have one central agency, MIFA, that knew what was going on, and could exchange information.” Father Mark Geary of St. Peter's Catholic Church and an early MIFA board member was excited about this first ecumenical venture since Vatican II, when Pope John 23rd had urged Catholics to work with other religions to solve common problems. “The assassination caused people to branch out beyond the downtown churches, because we knew we had to do something.” In describing the important role played by the Catholics in MIFA's birth, Father John Batson, MIFA board member and pastor of Holy Spirit Catholic Church recalls that Catholics had worked in ecumenical efforts before in Memphis, but the establishment of MIFA, he feels, was a key development and a significant achievement. “MIFA was a way to get religious leaders to come together to try to solve human problems.” Msgr. Paul W. Clunan of St. Louis Catholic Church, who had also been involved almost from the beginning of the organization, said that “the spirit came through the assassination. Ministers then were really involved, and a bond was established between Black and White. For the first time, Whites understood the problems of Blacks. It was the sanitation strike that made ecumenism work here.” The Reverend Berkeley Poole, the Methodist minister who became MIFA's first Executive Director, believes that Memphis was amenable to MIFA's formation in the wake of the strike and assassination “because Whites were frightened at the sudden shaking of the system. There was also some guilt caused by the crisis and the assertiveness of the Black community. Injustices that had long prevailed could no longer be ignored.” Brooks Ramsey, a Southern Baptist minister with an unusually liberal orientation concurs: “Memphis is a paradox. Even though it is a center of extreme fundamentalism, there is a minority, a humanistic, humanitarian minority in the church. The organization of MIFA was a way to do something positive to counteract the withdrawal of religion from the problems of life. Ecumenism exists in theory elsewhere, but it works in reality here. The original impetus for MIFA was social consciousness on the part of the Ministers Association.” The sanitation strike had a dual effect on MIFA. On one hand, it inspired MIFA's organizers to redouble their efforts to establish an inter-faith, cooperative agency. On the other hand, the participation of many of MIFA's founders in an active social protest tainted it in the eyes of many in the city. According to the planned schedule, the February 18th Consultation on Mission at Idlewild was to be followed by a three-day consultation in May to explore the new ways for churches to work together toward solution of urban problems. Because of the crisis, the consultation was postponed until fall. In the meantime the Steering Committee was enlarged to include the Reverends Ray Riddle, Maynard Fountain, H.H. Hooper, and Richard Wells; Jerrold Moore, assistant to the Mayor of Memphis, Frances Loring, Annabelle Whittemore, J.W. Clarke, Dr. Carl Walters of Southwestern College, Waddy West, Frank Campbell, Dr. John K. Johnson, John T. Fisher, Ted Johnson, O.C. Shuttles. The Steering Committee was instructed to draw up a constitution and by-laws, prepare a name for a metropolitan inter-faith agency. Attention was to be given to program areas and needed staff. Within a sixty day time limit the committee was asked to make its report. Sub-Committees were appointed and assigned tasks. The name, Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association, was adopted. Next: Growing Crops in Clay