To honor St. Petersburg's Civil Rights era leaders, a panel discussion “St. Pete 1968 Resistance" focused not on the current response to Trumpism, but on the ever-present challenges African-Americans face in the United States, even in ostensibly progressive cities like St. Petersburg.

Omali Yeshitela, the outspoken leader of the Uhuru Movement, Black Lives Matter's Ruth Beltra, SEIU-FL's Ashley Green and Brenela Williams of Fight for $15.

They talked about key moments for race relations over the city's history.

Like how on May 6, 1968, 211 sanitation workers in St. Pete went on a strike and were out for 116 days to battle low wages. It followed previous walkouts in 1964 and 1966, but the city kept making cuts. The final blow was a 30% wage reduction that led to unrest and four nights of riots.

“The black community responded because they saw what was happening to the sanitation workers [as an] assault on black people," Yeshitela said.

Earlier, in 1965, a dozen of black officers, known as the Courageous 12, sued the city for discrimination. At that time, black police officers in St. Petersburg couldn't arrest whites, work in certain parts of town or move up in their careers. In 1969, Leon Jackson became the first black officer assigned to an all-white area, in northeast St. Pete.

The strike of 1968 began one month after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in Memphis, where he was supporting a citywide labor strike by African-American sanitation workers.

It has been almost 50 years since those monumental events, and the country is once again doing battle over racial equality and social justice.

“We’re far from a victory," said panelist Dorian Collins. "If you look around you still see 64 million Americans in poverty; you will still see that we fight to have a livable wage. I feel that we have a long road to go.”

The panelists agreed they thought no progress had been made on institutional racism, an issue they said still contributes to inequality for city workers in some city departments.

“We need at some point to stop supporting economic systems that do not benefit the people and look into systems created by the working people,” Panelist Ruth Beltran said.

Green added that efforts to create change have to include reaching out to the community and encouraging others to .

“We also need to be willing to educate other people,” Green said.

Panelists also stressed the need for bringing other groups into the fold to advocate on causes they share in common.

This article appears in Apr 6-13, 2017.