Labor & Employment Law

King Day Celebration to Focus on Making Progress in New Political Climate

By James Parks

During the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend next month, more than 400 union activists will remind the nation that the 2010 election results mean that civil and human rights activists will have to redouble their efforts to keep alive King?s dream of social and economic justice.

At the annual AFL-CIO King Day celebration Jan. 13-17 in Cincinnati, union members will develop strategies to advance the issues of good job creation, immigration reform and economic equality in a much tougher political climate. More than 40 years ago, King faced a similarly hostile political climate, and in his last speech, King stood in solidarity with working people seeking justice and dignity (see video above).

Read the call letter to the King Day celebration here. Check out the agenda here, and download the registration form here.

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker and Letter Carriers (NALC) President Fredric Rolando will address the delegates. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) will speak via video. Other invited speakers include Jacqueline Berrien, who chairs the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC).  

Community service is a major portion of each year?s celebration, putting into action the union values of collective assistance for those in need. This year, participants will spend the first full day of the conference providing help to charitable and social action groups and organizations across the city.

In conjunction with the celebration in Cincinnati, working Americans around the country will hold roundtables, marches and rallies to remind their lawmakers that King?s vision for the nation included not only civil rights but also an economy that served all Americans?a vision that is far from fulfilled.

AFL-CIO Civil, Human and Women?s Rights Director Rosalyn Pelles says Cincinnati was chosen for the celebration because of its rich civil rights history. It is just steps from the banks of the Ohio River, which served as a natural dividing line between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North. As such, it served as one of the last stops on the Underground Railroad.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on December 31, 2010 (boomark / email).