MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – Elmore Nickleberry, a longtime Memphis sanitation worker who participated in the pivotal 1968 strike that brought the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to the city where the civil rights leader was killed, has died at age 92.

Nickleberry died on Dec. 30 in Memphis, according to an obituary by R.S. Lewis and Sons Funeral Home, which handled his services. A cause of death was not disclosed.

Nickleberry was one of about 1,300 Black sanitation workers who formed a union and went on strike after two colleagues, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, were crushed by a faulty garbage truck compactor as they sought shelter from a rainstorm in the back of the truck on Feb. 1, 1968. Many struggled to pay bills and feed their families as they held out for better pay, working conditions and benefits.

“We didn’t have a place to shower, wash our hands, nothing,” Nickleberry told the Associated Press in a 2018 interview.

King came to Memphis to support the strike and build support for his Poor People’s Movement. He led a march on Beale Street on March 28, 1968, that turned violent when police and protesters clashed. Nickleberry was one of the marchers who joined King that day in the Mississippi River city.

“A lot of people got hit and started running. I got hit on the arm, so I went down to the river,” Nickleberry said. “A lot of people got dogs sicced on them … It was bad during that time. Really bad.”

King had planned another march but he was fatally shot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel on April 4. The sanitation workers eventually struck a deal for higher pay and improved conditions.