In January of every year, I turn my mind to the life of Martin Luther King, and each time I am amazed at how much he achieved in his short lifetime. If Dr. King were still with us, this would be his seventy-third birthday [January 15, 2002]. Now that’s not old at all. In fact, it seems almost impossibly young considering the decades that have passed since his tragic death.

But it is possible, because King was only thirty-nine when he died on that balcony at the Lorraine Motel. But that too, seems almost impossible. How could a person have accomplished so much, and attained such a towering stature, in a lifetime that barely touched middle age?

It’s especially surprising when we consider that Dr. King accepted his first pastorship in Montgomery, Alabama. At age twenty-five he had no intention of becoming deeply involved in political or social causes. In 1955 King turned down a suggestion that he allow himself to be considered for the presidency of the Montgomery NAACP. But in December of that year, when he was asked to lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott, King accepted; he seems to have realized by then that no African American leader could live a quiet life unless battles against racism were fought and won.

By the time the boycott reached its successful conclusion a year later, Dr. King was fully committed to the civil rights movement. When a spate of white violence erupted just after the boycott ended, a reporter asked him if he feared for his life. King said: "No. Once you become dedicated to a cause, personal security is not the goal. It is greater than that. What will happen to you personally does not matter. My cause, my race, is worth dying for."

This total dedication to the civil rights cause carried King through the great struggles that we know so well. He and his followers, having learned from their defeat in Albany, Georgia, in 1962, faced down Bull Connor’s dogs and fire hoses in Birmingham in 1963. Following Birmingham, the great Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, the law that essentially ended legalized discrimination in America. We recall the voting rights struggle in Selma, Alabama, against Sheriff Jim Clark, involving Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee activists and followed by the Selma to Montgomery March. And how that led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which finally guaranteed Southern blacks the right to vote nearly 100 years after Reconstruction.

Of course, racial discrimination did not end with the passage of these laws. It persisted and persists today. But after the Voting Rights Act was passed, King had the foresight to realize that the central focus of the movement must switch from anti-Jim Crow protest to the economic front, where the well-being of blacks has been devastated by three hundred years of racial oppression. That is why he came to Memphis, Tennessee, in the days before his death to support striking sanitation workers seeking union recognition.

King understood that in the struggle for economic justice, the African American community had a powerful ally. Here is how he expressed it: "Blacks are almost entirely a working people. Our needs are identical with labor’s needs–decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children and respect in the community. That is why blacks support labor’s struggles and fight the laws which curb labor. I believe with all my heart that the coalition that can have the greatest impact in the struggle for human dignity here in America is that of black people and the forces of labor, because their forces are so closely intertwined."

King was correct then, and his perspective remains correct today. Not only do black working families and organized labor have the same goals, but black workers actually benefit more from labor’s struggles than other workers, since African Americans have more to gain. To confirm this we just need to look at the issues with which labor has dealt in recent years. Thanks to pressure from organized labor, a Congress controlled by the radical right was forced to pass a minimum wage increase. Since black workers are found disproportionately in minimum wage jobs, the black community benefited most from the increase.

African Americans are also found out of proportion in other low-wage jobs. Union representation is the best way for these workers to improve their wages and other conditions of labor, and the trade union movement is focusing particularly on low-wage workers in its union organizing activities.

Blacks are also found disproportionately in unsafe jobs. The Occupational, Safety and Health Administration would not exist except for organized labor’s political clout. And when a shop is unionized, OSHA’s regulations become more effective because the union monitors employer compliance.

Black retirees, more than other retired persons, depend on Social Security for all or most of their post-employment income. And the AFL-CIO along with its constituent unions are the most important force fighting to preserve its integrity against privatization. Unions understand that while rich people can afford to gamble their pension money on the stock market, America’s working families and especially black working families, cannot.

African Americans more than most others need assistance from government to obtain affordable, quality health care. Once again trade unions come to the fore, putting their considerable weight behind a Patients Bill of Rights which assures that doctors, not administrators, make medical decisions, and that patients can sue HMOs for the damages sustained because of poor medical practice.

Lastly, in education, the unions lead the fight for better public schools, which no one needs more than inner-city African American children. That is why organized labor opposes vouchers, which would leave our public schools–where most black children will remain no matter, vouchers or not–even more underfunded than they are now.

In the last election, the union vote and the black vote were the twin pillars of support for progressive candidates. This is yet another illustration of how closely the needs of labor and of African Americans coincide. In his last years, Martin Luther King realized the vital importance of a black-labor coalition, which since 1965 has been embodied by the A. Philip Randolph Institute. If African Americans and trade unionists share and act upon Dr. King’s insight, we can create a black-labor coalition powerful enough to achieve his ultimate dream, a dream of a nation that practices both racial equality and economic and social justice.