Dr. Michael Honey noted for "Labor" work

In time for MLK Day: New edition of “All Labor Has Dignity”

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., spent his life fighting for civil rights, but people forget he was equally committed to economic justice. A new paperback edition of King’s labor speeches clearly links these issues to today, according to the book’s editor Michael Honey.

A professor of history at UW Tacoma, Honey collected and edited King’s writings on economic justice in “All Labor Has Dignity” (Beacon Press, 256 pages, 2011). A paperback version will appear in mid-January, just before MLK Day.

The collection begins with King's lectures to unions early in his career as a civil rights leader, and culminates with his "Mountaintop" speech supporting black sanitation workers on strike for union rights in Memphis. King’s assassination in 1968 occurred as he was helping support the workers.

“The Occupy movement has raised the issue of economic equality, a phrase used by King in 1968,” said Honey. “King also fought for collective bargaining rights in Memphis, just as done today in Wisconsin, Ohio, and other states. King said ‘right to work’ laws such as the one now being pushed in Indiana provide ‘no rights and no work.’”

(Originally published by UW News, January 9, 2012)