Baxter Leach, 79, one of the surviving sanitation workers who participated in the 1968 sanitation workers strike that brought Martin Luther King Jr. to Memphis, died Tuesday morning, family members said.

Leach retired from the city of Memphis in 2005, after 43 years of service.

In 1968, Leach was instrumental in signing up sanitation workers to the AFSCME-backed union as they protested already inhumane working conditions that worsened under Mayor Henry Loeb's administration.

The strike and assassination marked a pivotal moment for the civil rights struggle in America.

Leach remained a voice for the dignity of workers until his death, speaking frequently at various labor actions around Memphis and participating heavily in the 50th anniversary of King's assassination in 2018.

"His last three years were three of the greatest years of his life,'' said son Michael Leach, 58, noting his father traveled to speak to various groups as interest in the 1968 stand by the strikers rose throughout the nation. One visit included meeting President Barack Obama in the White House.

"As he went around the country and would tell the story, people of color hugged him. He was their hero," Michael Leach said. "A lot of people today don’t understand the magnitude of what they stood up for. They were uneducated people. They had a job people wouldn't take. They decided they wouldn't take it anymore.”

Often in his speeches, daughter Anita Leach said, he would finish with the simple observation, "'I am a man.' He wanted people to stand up and be treated as equals. He wanted young people to get their education."

In a 2018 interview, Leach recounted for The Commercial Appeal his part in making history, including carrying the now-iconic I AM A MAN placards while marching to City Hall.

"That's what we was, a man, not no boy," Leach said. "We were marching for our rights, marching for dignity."

His children remember him as a father who would come home from work and immediately pitch in at the family's north-side restaurant, first named Melanie's and now named Ms. Girlee's. He would run errands, pick up supplies, slice potatoes and handle other chores.

"He was a hard worker and a loving father,” Anita Leach said, and a wise counsel for neighbors and friends.

Baxter and Jimmie Leach, who were married in 1957, raised six children.

"He and mom were known (in the neighborhood) as mom and dad to all kinds of people," Michael Leach said. "He was a loving man and he cared about his kids and he cared about other kids. Out of all that I can remember coming out of living through (the strife of) the 1960s I never heard him talk down about any white people or call them names. He's always been about equal opportunity.'’

The National Civil Rights Museum released a statement Tuesday afternoon following Leach's passing.

"The National Civil Rights Museum is truly saddened by the passing of our friend and former Memphis sanitation worker, Mr. Baxter Leach. He was among the surviving sanitation workers we were fortunate to honor during the MLK50 Commemoration in 2018 and Freedom Award in 2017," the statement read.

"Mr. Leach generously participated in the museum’s education programs and made himself available whenever he could to share the civil rights story in Memphis and the fight for human dignity. He contributed so much to the knowledge of the struggle, making it real and tangible for the next generation. We will miss him tremendously."