by Rebecca Greenberg
“Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shared these inspiring words in Memphis on April 3rd, 1968, while standing in support of striking sanitations workers — workers who were fighting for the same basic rights that are under attack in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan and dozens of other states across the nation. The next day, April 4th, 1968, Dr. King was shot and killed.
Although Dr. King is gone, his dream for fairness and justice for all workers lives on. In honor of the principles he fought and died for, yesterday, on the 43rd anniversary of MLK’s death, working people came out en masse at more than 1,000 events across the nation, to honor the legacy of MLK by standing up for workers’ rights and speaking out against the right-wing attacks on the middle class.