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jobs and union wages,
who should have been advancing
themselves,” he
added. “Instead, factories
were shutting down. Jobs
were being shipped overseas.
The urban areas
were being stripped of all
economic activities.
“It was like stranding
the millions of people
who’d migrated to the cities
for jobs,” Honey continued.
“So, without an
economic program—yes,
that’s what he was saying—
the civil rights we’ve
gained won’t be meaningful
for most people.”
Fassler noted that
King was working on an
“important Poor People’s
Campaign” in New York
City in early 1968, when
he left for Memphis.
At that time, Honey
said the sanitation strike
was reaching a crucial
point, where the workers
could possibly lose.
“They’d been holding
mass meetings every day
for over a month in different
churches around
the city,” he said. “They’d
been having picket lines
two times a day. Marches
downtown, every day;
1,200 workers on strike,
for well over a month.
They were running out
of food. They were losing
their homes, their automobiles.”
Honey said the black
community was in strong
support of the strike, as
well as the labor union,
AFL-CIO.
But he said that “they
had a totally intransigent
mayor, a fi scal conservative
who was totally
against unions.
“He wanted the city to
spend less, and he wanted
to take that out of the
backs of workers,” Honey
said. “So, you had this
confrontation between labor
and civil rights on the
one hand, and fi scal conservatism
and anti-unionism
on the other.
“The strikers felt they
weren’t getting any attention,
and that it was a really
important battle; and
that’s why they brought
King in,” he added. “How
could he not go to Memphis?
“Here was a good example
of local people organizing
around the
very issues he was trying
to mobilize the country
around,” Honey continued.
“So, his staff told
him he shouldn’t go, but
he went against their advice.”
In the “Mountaintop”
speech, the speech given
in Memphis, Fassler said
King seemed aware of the
imminent threat of violence
against his person,
saying, that while “longevity
has its place,” he would
prefer to pursue his work
than be assured safety.
Fassler said the whole
coda of the speech was a
meditation on danger and
the transience of life.
When King fl ew to
Memphis the day before
he gave that speech,
Honey said there was
a bomb threat and that
King had told his family
before he left Atlanta
that someone was trying
to kill him, “and that they
should be ready.”
“We know from the
House Committee on Assassination
that there was
a reward of $50,000 put
up by some businessmen
in St. Louis for somebody
to kill him,” Honey said.
“He defi nitely had premonitions
that it could very
well happen at any time.
He was always being attacked
by the right wing,
neo-Nazis and segregationists.
“But when he came
out against the war, the
opposition to him went
right up the ranks to the
President of the United
States, and certainly the
FBI—which had been
trying to destroy his career
since 1963, at least,”
he added “The whole atmosphere
around King
was tainted by real hostility
to what he was saying
and doing.”
Of all the speeches in
the book, Honey said he
liked the one the book
is named for: “All Labor
Has Dignity,” a speech to
the Memphis sanitation
workers.
“It’s not a scripted
speech—and it’s marked
by constant cheers and
uproarious approval, and
chanting,” he said. “He’s
talking straight from the
heart; it’s King at his best.
He talks about the problem
of two Americas, one
poor and one rich. The
gulf between people with
inordinate, superfl uous
wealth and the people suffering
in abject, deadening
poverty.
“He talks about the
working poor—people
who work what he calls
‘full-time jobs at parttime
wages,’” Honey
added. “He talks about
hospital workers being
as important as the physician,
and sanitation
workers being as important
as the doctor. How
labor is not menial until
you’re not getting adequate
wages—all jobs are
important.
“The question is do you
have dignity, and respect
and a decent livelihood,
based on what you do?” he
continued. “I just think
it’s a marvelous speech,
and it deals with a lot of
the issues we’re still dealing
with today.”
September 17, 2020
New York City
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