By Doug Cunningham

Wisconsin’s official state capitol memorial for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is the oldest in the nation. This year’s tribute was especially charged because Dr. King gave his life in defense of public worker collective bargaining and Wisconsin’s governor is beign recalled for attacking that right. The public employee union AFSCME was born in Wisconsin. Today petition signatures to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker for the governor’s attack on collective bargaining will be turned in. With Walker sitting directly behind her Wisconsin MLK Day keynote speaker Professor Sharillyin Ifill had this to say about Dr. King and the struggle for human rights.

[Professor Sherilyn Ifill]: “We know that Dr. King would have been on the side of workers struggling to receive a fair wage and decent working conditions. (Cheers) We know this not because Dr. King was partisan. Dr. King famously said both political parties have betrayed the cause of justice. We know this because Dr. King died in Memphis Tennessee where he had come to march in solidarity with the city’s striking black sanitation workers. As part of his Poor People’s Campaign King had moved his attention from segregation and voting to the economic conditions of the country’s most marginalized people.”