“All Labor Has Dignity”

Table of Contents Introduction Editor's note   Part I Forging a Civil Rights–Labor Alliance in the Shadow of the Cold War   Chapter 1 “ A look to the future” —Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Highlander Folk School, Monteagle, Tennessee, September 2, 1957 Chapter 2  “ It is a dark day indeed when men cannot work to implement the ideal of brotherhood without being labeled communist.” — Statement of Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in defense of the United Packinghouse Workers Union of America, Atlanta, Georgia, June 11, 1959 Chapter 3  “ We, the Negro people and labor . . . inevitably will sow the seeds of liberalism.” — Twenty-fifth Anniversary Dinner, United Automobile Workers Union, Cobo Hall, Detroit, Michigan, April 27, 1961   Chapter 4  If the Negro Wins, Labor Wins — AFL-CIO Fourth Constitutional Convention, Americana Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida, December 11, 1961   Chapter 5 “I am in one of those houses of labor to which  I come not to criticize, but to praise.” — Thirteenth Convention, United Packinghouse Workers Union of America, Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 21, 1962   Chapter 6 “There are three major social evils . . . the evil  of war, the evil of economic injustice, and the evil of racial injustice.” — District 65 Convention, Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), Laurels Country Club, Monticello, New York, September 8, 1962 Chapter 7 “Industry knows only two types of workers who,  in years past, were brought frequently to their jobs in chains.” — Twenty-fifth Anniversary Dinner, National Maritime Union, Americana Hotel, New York City, October 23, 1962   Chapter 8 “Now is the time to make real the promises  of democracy.” — Detroit March for Civil Rights, Cobo Hall, Detroit, Michigan, June 23, 1963   Chapter 9 “The unresolved race question” — Thirtieth Anniversary of District 65, RWDSU, Madison Square Garden, New York City, October 23, 1963   part II Standing at the Crossroads: Race, Labor, War, and Poverty   Chapter 10  “The explosion in Watts reminded us all that the northern ghettos are the prisons of forgotten men.” — District 65, RWDSU, New York City, September 18, 1965   Chapter 11  “Labor cannot stand still long or it will slip backward.” — Illinois State Convention AFL-CIO, Springfield, Illinois, October 7, 1965   Chapter 12 Civil Rights at the Crossroads — Shop Stewards of Local 815, Teamsters, and the Allied Trades Council, Americana Hotel, New York City, May 2, 1967   Chapter 13 Domestic Impact of the War in Vietnam — National Labor Leadership Assembly for Peace, Chicago, Illinois, November 11, 1967   Part III Down Jericho Road: The Poor People’s Campaign and Memphis Strike   Chapter 14 “The other America” — Local 1199 Salute to Freedom, Hunter College, New York City, March 10, 1968   Chapter 15 “All labor has dignity.” — American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) mass meeting, Memphis Sanitation Strike, Bishop Charles Mason Temple, Church of God in Christ, Memphis, Tennessee, March 18, 1968   Chapter 16 To the Mountaintop: “Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness.” — AFSCME mass meeting, Memphis Sanitation Strike, Bishop Charles Mason Temple, Church of God in Christ, Memphis, Tennessee, April 3, 1968   Epilogue: king and labor Appendix: a note on the speeches Acknowledgments Index