Today marks the birthday of  one of this country’s greatest leaders, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Many think the speech he gave at the March on Washington in August of 1963 (pictured above) was his best, but I happen to think the words he spoke to thousands in Memphis the day before a bullet ended his life is his greatest oratory moment. King spent years fighting for the rights of Blacks and, with the assistance of men like Bayard Rustin - his right hand man, came to realize that economic parity was key to realizing the dream he spoke of on the steps of the nation’s capital five years earlier. He knew that economic justice could insure that Blacks and other marginalized people could move forward in this country and was clear that organized labor was one way to achieve that goal.

Then (as is true today) millions of black and brown Americans comprised the workforce that did the jobs no one else wanted to do. King was clear that without an organized labor pool, workers would continue to suffer from wage exploitation and never be able to attain real parity or justice. King, a master of rhetoric, pulls out all the stops in his final speech and makes a call to action that includes all Americans, which resonated deeply with the striking sanitation workers, the people of Memphis, and the world. There are eerily prophetic moments in the speech most particularly where he proclaims that he has seen the Mountaintop and that while he might not get there with the workers in Memphis, he knew they would prevail.

He speaks of the rights given to all Americans. Much like he does in Letter from the Birmingham Jail, in this speech King points out the arguments of his detractors and then gives explicit reasons why they’re misguided in their analysis of the situation. He uses repetition to move the speech forward through time and place and to emphasize the fact that this movement or workers will not and cannot stop:  “I would go on…but I wouldn’t stop there.” He uses this technique to show how injustice has been around forever and that always someone has stood up to speak truth to power and facilitate change.

King then does something that is pure genius; he uses a personal letter from a teenaged white girl to highlight two things – one that this issue of economic justice was not about black and white but about people and their right to earn a fair wage and live decently. He also uses that letter to show that he is here for a reason and that he is in Memphis for a reason. The irony here is that the girl wrote him after an assassination attempt, which he survived, but a short twenty-four hours after giving this speech another attempt would end his life.  

Today workers across the country will march in solidarity because forty-three years After this historic speech, we as a nation are still not in full support of unionization and worker organization. The attack on unions and public workers by the right is, by extension, an attack on people of color who make up significant portions of the public workforce.

As we look back at this speech, we see that a lot of what King says is, unfortunately, still true today. He says, “Something is happening in Memphis and something is happening in our world…Something is happening in our world. Masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee — the cry is always the same: “We want to be free”.

Today as we scan the news we see that, yes, something is happening in Wisconsin today and something is happening in Indiana – where the rights of public workers are in jeopardy again and the “powers that be” think they can ignore the voices of the people crying out to be heard. And yes, today something is happening in our world and masses of people assemble in public squares, in capital cities and small towns around the world because they want to be free.

What I really love about this speech is that he doesn’t just call out the problems, he calls people to action with practical things all citizens can do to affect change in a non-violent manner. He calls people to action using their economic might, he tells folks that they can hit “the powers that be” in the place where it hurts most – their pockets. He knows that while individually the workers in Memphis are poor, together they are rich enough to change “pharaoh’s” mind.

Like all good social texts, the Mountaintop speech highlights an issue and gives reasons that compel listeners and readers to do something. A good social text informs and changes the quality of light by which we view an issue. A good social text exposes injustice and makes a call to action. It frames and provides context while providing a plan for moving forward. This speech does all of these things and like all good social texts, stands the test of time…

Click here to listen to/read the speech in it’s entirety