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Local Trade Unions Celebrate MLK Day

On the holiday established for Dr. Martin Luther King, the coalition of Black Trade Unionists, the WNY Area Labor Foundation, and other local labor unions got together to honor his life and legacy.

BUFFALO, NY -- "We have fallen asleep."

Rev. Mark Blue, President of the Buffalo branch of the NAACP spoke from a dark, wooden podium, the sound of his voice crackling through the sound system set up to project his voice to the back of a room of seated onlookers, clearly unnecessarily.

They were gathered inside on a chilly Monday evening in an office building set back from Main St. in downtown Buffalo, to speak and listen and be together on the national holiday celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. There was food and music and a stirring reading of Dr. King's famous "I Have A Dream" speech by Terrence McKissick. Blue focused on another presentation King made, one not as well known.

"Dr. Martin Luther King, on March 31st, 1968, delivered a speech called "Remaining Awake to a Great Revolution," he recounted. "This is the last Sunday sermon at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Four days later, he is assasinated."

Blue then quoted directly from the address, "Without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the primitive sources of social stagnation, so we must help time and realize that time is always right to do right." The message he was communicating was one echoed by others who took the podium before and after him. Rev. Terry Melvin, President of the International Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, perhaps said it most succinctly. "We can't sit here tonight and honor Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King," he spoke, "if we don't commit to picking up his torch and trotting up the mountain top."

The audience was comprised of members of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Service Employees International Union, and the Western New York Area Labor Federation. The was a message well received.

"It breaks my heart to know we are still fighting battles that Martin Luther King died fighting," said Jillian Hanesworth, a local poet who read some of her work. "The hope is that we're still here. The hope is that there are no chains on me, so even though there are a lot of things I have to fight for, there are a lot of things that the people before me have fought and won."

"Is it still unfair? Absolutely, but we've gotten somewhere and we will continue to get somewhere."

The evening served as a call to action, as much as a remembrance, of a great and influential individual - a theme that seems fitting for the man himself.

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