Civil Rights, Labor Rights Are Interwoven

Beginning of article

Martin Luther King Jr., the most compelling orator and moral force of his generation, a Nobel Peace Prize winner whose vision of how people should treat each other shook the conscience of a vast nation, died fighting for living wages for garbage workers in Memphis.

That simple fact says much about King and two of the country's major social movements.

Thirty years after King's unforgettable "I Have A Dream" speech in Washington, it has been widely forgotten that labor played a key role in conceiving and organizing the civil rights rally.

More important, while racial justice was the essence of King's crusade, economic fairness formed an integral part of his …