Martin Luther King, Jr. Died On This Date In 1968 While On A Mission For Workers’ Rights

Posted by | April 4, 2011 15:45 | Filed under: Top Stories


Today is the 43rd anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. It’s ironic that King went to Memphis to support a sanitation worker strike. They were fighting for collective bargaining rights. All these years later we are still fighting for workers’ rights because of those who would remove them.

King called upon the city to respect the “dignity of labor,” saying that all workers deserved fair treatment. He also said it was a crime for a rich country like the United States to pay some people starvation wages. Documentary footage from the AFSCME union captured King’s address to the workers:

KING: You are demanding that this city will respect the dignity of labor. So often we overlook the work and the significance of those who are not in professional jobs, of those who are not in the so-called big jobs. But let me say to you tonight that whenever you are engaged in work that serves humanity and is for the building of humanity, it has dignity and it has worth. You are reminding not only Memphis but you are reminding the nation that it is a crime for people who live in this rich nation and receive starvation wages.

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Copyright 2011 Liberaland
By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.

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