In order to determine how certain symbolic labels became attached to the city of Memphis, Tennessee, this monograph examines the events leading up to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and describes the events, personalities, and social forces that dominated the strike by garbage workers in 1968. It analyzes the strike in terms of the culture as an interpretive system and includes a textual analysis of local press coverage that assesses the use of symbols to make sense of the strike. The monograph asserts that black anarchy was the symbol for the strike, paternalism the symbol for efforts to end the strike by the city council, and the outside agitator the symbol for King. It also contends that Mayor Henry Loeb was interpreted by whites as a heroic leader, benevolently protecting the black man; that blacks saw Loeb as plantation owner-reincarnate; and that P.J. Ciampa, a national union officer, was a symbol of immense power in the culture, and seen as a latter-day carpetbagger who exploited the black garbage collectors. The monograph concludes that the newspapers, the "Commercial Appeal" and the "Press-Scimitar," defined the strike culturally using the themes and concepts that historically have ordered experience in Southern culture. (SRT)