By Doug Cunningham

It was forty years ago that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was gunned down in Memphis while supporting striking AFSCME sanitation workers. In a speech to the 1961 AFL-CIO convention, Dr. King said the needs of African-Americans are identical with labor's needs; decent wages, fair working conditions, liveable housing, old age security, and health and welfare measures to create conditions where families can grow. Dr. King understood that the labor movement was and is a movement for fundamental justice. In a 1965 speech, Dr. King said the labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress.