A Royal Remembrance

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE

Members of AFSCME Local 1733 in Memphis haven’t forgotten the debt they owe to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. On April 4, members honored the African-American leader who lost his life in 1968 while in the city to support their strike.

At a memorial service at Clayborn Ball Temple, union and community members recalled Dr. King’s legacy and urged Americans to continue in their struggle for civil rights and economic justice.

Speakers included AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee, Sec.-Treas. William Lucy — who had helped to organize the 1968 strike — as well as Local 1733 Pres. Willie Joe Alexander and Local 1733 Exec. Director Dorothy Crook.

McEntee remarked: "If you want to pay tribute to Dr. King’s leadership, then teach your children about him this Saturday. Remember him in your prayers when you go to church Sunday. But, by God, work to build the union in his name when you go back to work on Monday."