(The AFL-CIO distributed the following statement on August 23.)
WASHINGTON — In 1963, we marched and rallied at the Lincoln Memorial for jobs and peace and freedom. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stirred the soul of our nation when he preached, “I have a dream . . . .”
Forty years later, Dr. King’s voice still echoes, but his dream has not been fulfilled. Black men and women can now drink freely from our water fountains, but black children are still forced to try and learn in schools that are still all too separate and still too unequal. African Americans from all corners of our country now have the right to vote and do so, but we still haven’t learned how to make sure those votes are actually counted.
While citizens of color no longer have to sit in the back of the bus, millions of workers of color are missing the bus when it comes to enjoying the freedoms won at such great expense by those who marched in 1963. We may have made great strides in guaranteeing equal opportunity, but in many ways we’ve marched backwards as a nation in providing real opportunity. While we’ve made progress in driving racism underground, bigotry and hatred still swim in the mainstream of our society all too frequently.
Hate crimes still shock us. Attacks on affirmative action still divide us. Racial profiling still insults and hurts us. And discrimination grows more sophisticated every day. Now we have tax schemes that take from the poor and give to the rich, elected officials who use legitimate security concerns to justify illegitimate abuses of civil liberties, employers who exploit immigrants and low-wage workers and employers who block workers from exercising their legal and moral freedom to form unions.
The working women and men of the AFL-CIO honor those hardy marchers of 1963 and celebrate the work of Dr. King. We take this anniversary as a time to rededicate ourselves to correcting the injustice of a society in which all women and all men are created equal, but still denied the basic right to live and work as equals.
In late September, we will honor Dr. King and those who marched on Washington again by staging a nationwide Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride. These new freedom rides will bring greater attention to the need for more avenues to citizenship, for more ways to reunite families and for more protections for workers who want to form and join unions.
America’s unions invite all working families to join in as we once more welcome buses from all across the country.