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Opinions | MLK’s radical vision was rooted in a long history of Black unionism Peter Cole © Charlie Kelly/AP Striking Memphis sanitation workers pass Tennessee National Guard troops during a march to city hall on March 29, 1968. (Charlie Kelly/AP) Fifty-three years ago, a racist White man killed the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis. King’s presence there was no coincidence. The city’s predominantly Black sanitation workers were on strike and King had a long history of supporting unions, which he once described as “the first and greatest anti-poverty program.” The recent effort by 6,000 predominantly Black workers to unionize an Amazon warehouse complex in Bessemer, Ala., is only the latest chapter in a long history of Black labor organizing. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Their efforts, like King’s in the 1960s, were made possible by the work of Ben Fletcher. Fletcher was a Black labor organizer from Philadelphia

United statesMartin luther king jrFred hamptonLucy parsonsJeff bezosGlenn perrymoreElla bakerWoodrow wilsonAngela davisAlbert parsonsJohn walshJohn mckelveyPolly bakerAlonzo richardsBen fletcherDepartment of justice