43 Years after King Assassination the Fight for Civil Rights Continues

Leadership Conference on Civil Rights April 5, 2011 - Posted by Brianna Deitrich On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated while in Memphis, Tenn., defending the fundamental rights to fair pay, safe working conditions, and an equal voice in solidarity with more than one thousand city sanitation workers on strike for better wages and benefits. This week, the civil and human rights community remembers and honors King’s sacrifice and commitment to economic justice and workers rights by uniting with union members, students, and other advocates for the “We Are One” campaign. “We Are One” grew organically out of the attacks on collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin, Ohio, and other states, and is made up of a diverse coalition of local, state and national community leaders, working people, activists and individuals whom are coming together to push back and to show unity in the face of attacks on collective bargaining rights, voting rights, women, immigrants, and public service programs. Full Story: http://www.civilrights.org/archives/2011/04/1185-king.html

On King and Living a Life Beyond Fear

The Root Forty-three years to the day after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s slaying, those who fight for social and economic justice still face real threats to their safety and rights, says the NAACP's president. By: Benjamin Todd Jealous Posted: April 4, 2011 at 12:18 AM Seventeen years ago, I was an organizer in Mississippi. And I was scared. We were planning a march to stop the governor from turning a public, historically black university, Mississippi Valley State University in Itta Bena, into a prison. Byron De La Beckwith had just been put in prison for killing Medgar Evers -- the NAACP's field secretary in Mississippi. It was 30 years too late, but the Ku Klux Klan was still enraged that one of their own had been sentenced to prison for killing a black man. They threatened to kill me or one of the other organizers in retaliation. Full Story: http://www.theroot.com/views/king-and-living-life-beyond-fear