Continuing the Legacy of King’s Struggle

By Johanna Chao Kreilick

On April 4, 2008, UUSC honors the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and recognizes the importance of continuing the struggle for economic justice, civil liberties, and human rights for all people.

We commit to continuing the movement to unite a broad spectrum of Americans in favor of racial and economic justice — and peace.

While many know King died in Memphis, they don't know what he was doing there. He died supporting sanitation workers in their struggle for the right to form a union — a struggle that merged economic justice with race and ignited a national debate about poverty and military spending.

As the manager of UUSC's Economic Justice Program, I was in Memphis on March 13, 2008, to represent UUSC and Let Justice Roll at the Interfaith Celebration to Continue Dr. King's Work for Living Wages. The event was held at historic Centenary United Methodist Church, where, in 1968, Reverend James Lawson organized major religious support for striking sanitation workers living with poverty wages, racial discrimination, and dangerous working conditions.

The lively gathering, full of testimony and song, reasserted the ongoing need to squarely lift up issues of race and class within the broader public debate — and highlighted ongoing work for living wages at the national, state, and local levels.

As part of the celebration, we heard from Taylor Rodgers, a former sanitation worker and Memphian at the heart of the 1968 "I am a Man" struggle.

Both Rodgers and King remind us that decent work is a human right — that all people have the right to work, to safe and healthy working conditions, and to equal pay for equal work. They also have the right to organize, ensuring for themselves and their families an existence worthy of human dignity.

As part of his remembrance and call for continued justice, Rodgers acknowledged his wife, seated in the pews. He thanked her for her encouragement during those dark times, recognizing how her support made his courage possible.

While listening to Rodgers, I was moved to understand the deep heroism of people like him and his wife. I understood in their example the spirit of King's sentiment, "We can get more organized together than we can apart."

UUSC recognizes the need to continue creating powerful, innovative collective action against racism, poverty-wage jobs, and militarization, which continue to plague us today.

On this special day — an anniversary of struggle, courage, loss, and hope — UUSC acknowledges the wide range of valuable contributions being made in the collective movement for justice and human rights.

We invite you to learn about how to join your efforts with ours.

Freedom Summer: A Civil Rights Journey

From July 12-19, 2008, UUSC's JustWorks Freedom Summer: A Civil Rights Journey will offer participants a chance to learn firsthand about the struggles for racial justice of the 1950s and 1960s. This intergenerational trip brings people together from around the country to travel by bus to sites significant in the U.S. civil rights movement. Join us!

Economic Justice

Today, you can't shop for food, buy a new pair of blue jeans, or order a cup of coffee without coming into contact with the contributions of workers, many of whom labor in unsafe conditions, in full-time jobs, at part-time wages. Sanitation workers, garment workers, poultry workers, street vendors, small farmers, and informal traders in the United States and around the world are increasingly at risk, with women and children among the most vulnerable.

UUSC's Economic Justice Program directly supports worker-led grassroots organizing and living-wage efforts in the United States and overseas, highlighting the impact of race, class, and gender on the lives of workers. We develop tools and resources for educating and mobilizing allies as partners in the workers' rights movement.

Civil Liberties

A key element of UUSC's Civil Liberties Program is opposition to the continuing Iraq war. King believed that the "giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism," were interconnected symptoms of the same social problem. And we agree.

This year, UUSC honored the legacy of King by increasing our commitment to peace and justice through efforts to end the Iraq war. Under the banner of The Cost of Iraq: Who Pays the Price?, UUSC continues to provide leadership through outreach, education, and mobilization to engage communities in peacemaking and human rights.