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Fifteen minutes of silence

Submitted by scharrison on Mon, 04/04/2011 - 11:44am

43 years later, echoes of the gunshot can still be heard:

Union supporters who want to repeal a 1959 North Carolina law denying collective bargaining rights for public employees will speak out through silence on the 43rd anniversary of the slaying of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The state chapters of the AFL-CIO and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People are helping to organize a 15-minute silent protest at noon Monday across the street from the Legislative Building in Raleigh.

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MLK, from a speech in 1961:

Submitted by scharrison on Mon, 04/04/2011 - 11:52am.

"In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as 'right to work.' It is a law to rob us of our civil rights and job rights. It is supported by Southern segregationists who are trying to keep us from achieving our civil rights and our right of equal job opportunity. Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining by which unions have improved wages and working conditions of everyone.Wherever these laws have been passed, wages are lower, job opportunities are fewer and there are no civil rights. We do not intend to let them do this to us. We demand this fraud be stopped. Our weapon is our vote."