Henry Loeb III (December 9, 1920 – September 8, 1992) was the mayor of Memphis, Tennessee for two separate terms in the 1960s, from 1960 through 1963, and 1968 through 1971. He gained national notoriety in his second term for his role in opposing the demands of striking sanitation workers in February 1968. During what came to be known as the Memphis Sanitation Strike, around 1300 African-American members of Local 1733 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees engaged in a 64-day strike for improved wages, working conditions, and union recognition.
This conflict, and racial violence that spread throughout the city in its wake, compelled Martin Luther King, Jr. to visit Memphis in late March of that year, in order to assist AFSCME in their negotiations with Loeb and other city officials and work alongside other Civil Rights leaders in raising consciousness about the low pay and mistreatment suffered by the workers. However, on April 4, King was assassinated, an event that helped force a temporary resolution of the strike on the part of the city. Further strikes had to be threatened later in 1968 to force Loeb and the City Council to honor its agreements.
Loeb was a strong conservative in politics; he received a large part of his criticism, as well as local Caucasian support, for the local police's harsh and often violent treatment of strikers and sympathizers, which included local ministers, schoolchildren, and families of the workers. It was only after the King assassination, and subsequent Federal pressure placed on the city by President Lyndon Johnson and the United States Department of Labor, that he relented in his strong obstinance against the city's recognizing AFSCME. His family remains prominent in Memphis' economic life through Loeb Properties, a development firm; however, Loeb himself eventually left Memphis and moved to Forrest City, Arkansas, some 60 miles westward, where he became mayor there for some time, many years later.
Cracked.com selected Loeb at the top of their list of the "most horrific bosses of all time." [1]