SCLC Launches 21st Century Poor People’s Campaign
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) today announced the rebirth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Poor People’s Campaign” to fight poverty in some of the poorest regions of America. Launched in 1968, the campaign’s first major initiative sought to win economic justice for sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn. It was there on a motel balcony where King was assassinated April 4,1968.
In a press conference at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., SCLC General Counsel Dexter Wimbush said the campaign’s goal is to
finish the unfinished business of Dr. King.
New Project to Combat Unconscious Racism
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While the election of President Obama shows that overt racism is less acceptable in America, a new project launched last month by the Institute for America’s Future explores the large role unconscious racial bias still plays in our politics and society.
The Americans for American Values (AAV) project will research the effects of unconscious racial bias on decision-making and develop strategies to support decision-making based on consciously held American values rather than on racial anxiety and stereotypes. The project began with the release of a series of educational videos and a set of research studies. View the new videos and learn more about AAV here.
john powell, the project’s founder and executive director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, said racial equality and fairness are values widely supported by Americans, but hidden biases often undermine these values.
As society tries to move beyond racial discrimination, a better understanding of implicit bias is needed. Our two-fold goal with this study is to help the American public better understand implicit bias and to give them ways to avoid triggering these biases.
Celebrating Black Labor History Month
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February is Black History Month, and with just a few resources, teachers, parents and union locals can turn it into Black Labor History Month.
The American Labor Studies Center (ALSC) and unions such as AFSCME and AFT have compiled numerous excellent resources to help highlight black history this month by focusing on the history of African Americans in the labor movement.
A key teaching point is the shared values of the civil rights and union movements. One of the best resources for exploring the common ideas and goals of the two movements is the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who died in 1968 while helping striking sanitation workers in Memphis form a union with AFSCME. (See video.)
Union Civil Rights Activists Vow to Keep King’s Dream Alive
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Union civil rights activists this weekend celebrated the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., by commiting to hold the new administration and Congress accountable and carry on the work they did in the 2008 election to mobilize workers in support of a strong progressive agenda.
More than 800 participants in the annual AFL-CIO King Day celebration in New Orleans, which ends today, also responded to President-elect Obama’s call to honor King with community service. They joined with hundreds of area union members to roll up their sleeves in more than 20 different community service projects in a city that continues to suffer three years later from the effects of Hurricane Katrina. Over two days, the activists helped repair an African American museum, churches and homes in hard-hit St. Bernard Parish.
Trumka: Obama’s Election Just the Beginning of Progress
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| AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka joins members of IUE-CWA Local 755 in Dayton, Ohio, in handing out issues leaflets to union members. |
Working families not only helped elect a new president and Congress in November, they helped restore the soul of the nation and showed the world what it really means to be an American, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka says. And they will play a major part in resolving the nation’s economic crisis.
Speaking at the annual AFL-CIO King Day celebration in New Orleans last night, Trumka said even though union members did not cause this crisis, “we’re the people who are going to lead America out of it.”
Because there’s only way to rebuild the middle class in this country—only one way to protect and create jobs for all workers white and black—and it’s not by bailing out banks. It’s through organizing, it’s through unionizing, it’s through collective bargaining. That’s what helped lift America out of the last depression, and that’s the only thing that’s going to end this one.
20,000 Union Members Respond to Call for Day of Community Service
Responding to President-elect Barack Obama’s call to pay tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. by giving back to their communities, more than 20,000 AFL-CIO union volunteers in 41 cities will provide services to those in need this weekend and on Jan. 19—the official King holiday.
The projects range from giving out free meals to cleaning up blighted areas, distributing warm clothes and repairing dilapidated structures.
