Remembering Dr. King

GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA

AFSCME workers participated in the annual commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday by marching through downtown Greensboro alongside almost 1,000 union members and civil rights activists.

To mark the close links between organized labor and the civil rights movement, organizers sponsored daily activities from Jan. 11-15. They included educational seminars and community service events, culminating with a parade and voters’ rights rally. This was the first AFL-CIO celebration in this city, which played a key role in civil rights history as the site of student sit-ins that galvanized the movement.

Sec.-Treas. William Lucy, who spoke at a community event, called the King Day celebration an opportunity to learn lessons from the recent Presidential election, in which tens of thousands of people were disqualified or not allowed to vote. "The question before us," Lucy declared, "is what do we do? I believe Dr. King would have said, ‘Let’s not agonize. Let’s organize!’"

Lucy went on to exhort the audience to "organize so we realize the maximum potential of our political strength" — as a tribute to King’s memory and legacy.