43 Years after King Assassination the Fight for Civil Rights Continues

On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated while in Memphis, Tenn., defending the fundamental rights to fair pay, safe working conditions, and an equal voice in solidarity with more than one thousand city sanitation workers on strike for better wages and benefits. This week, the civil and human rights community remembers and honors King’s sacrifice and commitment to economic justice and workers rights by uniting with union members, students, and other advocates for the “We Are One” campaign.

“We Are One” grew organically out of the attacks on collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin, Ohio, and other states, and is made up of a diverse coalition of local, state and national community leaders, working people, activists and individuals whom are coming together to push back and to show unity in the face of attacks on collective bargaining rights, voting rights, women, immigrants, and public service programs.

To show solidarity and support for these issues, Americans across the country and supporters around the world are participating in more than a thousand marches, teach-ins, vigils, community forums, and thousands of other community- and workplace-focused actions this week, coordinated by the “We Are One” coalition.

In a Huffington Post op-ed, Leadership Conference President Wade Henderson explained the importance of fighting for these rights, saying:

The right to join and organize unions and bargain for better wages, benefits, and conditions are rooted in the spirit of the Constitutional rights to free speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom to petition for the redress of grievances….

For seven decades or more, collective bargaining has brought Americans from every background closer to the “promised land” of economic security and upward mobility. Through collective bargaining, many who have been deprived of the fullness of American life, including African Americans, women, Latinos, and the White working class, have gained greater access to jobs, education, housing, health care, and financial security. Union advocacy for minimum occupational health and safety standards, a 40-hour work week, family and medical leave, and the minimum wage has raised living standards for union and non-union workers alike.

If Dr. King were with us today, he would be marching against injustice in Madison in 2011, just as he marched against injustice in Memphis in 1968.