The year Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered, 1968, was a big year for a cause Rev. King championed: the labor movement.

King was in Memphis, Tennessee, to campaign with unionizing sanitation workers. In April, he would be shot and killed.

His death reverberated across the county. But the success of the sanitation workers in Memphis would have direct consequences for Baltimore and Maryland, where thousands of public sector workers were seeking to unionize.

Jane Berger, PhD, is an Associate Professor of History at Moravian University. She is also author of “A New Working Class: The Legacies of Public-Sector Employment in the Civil Rights Movement.”

(Photo from the AFRO American Newspapers Archives.)

The year Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered, 1968, was a big year for a cause Rev. King championed: the labor movement.
King was in Memphis, Tennessee, to campaign with unionizing sanitation workers. In April, he would be shot and killed.
His death reverberated across the county. But the success of the sanitation workers in Memphis would have direct consequences for Baltimore and Maryland, where thousands of public sector workers were seeking to unionize.
Jane Berger, PhD, <a href="https://news.moravian.edu/2021/12/08/jane-berger/">is an Associate Professor of History at Moravian University</a>. She is also author of “A New Working Class: The Legacies of Public-Sector Employment in the Civil Rights Movement.”
(Photo from the AFRO American Newspapers Archives.)

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Catch On the Record, hosted by Sheilah Kast, weekdays from 9:30 to 10:00 am, following NPR's Morning Edition. We'll discuss the issues that affect your life and bring you thoughtful and lively conversations with the people who shape those issues -- business people, public officials, scholars, artists, authors, WYPR reporters and other journalists who can take us inside the story. If you want to share a comment, question, or an idea for an interview you?d like to hear, email us at <a href="mailto:ontherecord@wypr.org" target="_blank">ontherecord@wypr.org</a>

On The Record

Catch On the Record, hosted by Sheilah Kast, weekdays from 9:30 to 10:00 am, following NPR's Morning Edition. We'll discuss the issues that affect your life and bring you thoughtful and lively conversations with the people who shape those issues -- business people, public officials, scholars, artists, authors, WYPR reporters and other journalists who can take us inside the story. If you want to share a comment, question, or an idea for an interview you'd like to hear, email us at ontherecord@wypr.org

Catch On the Record, hosted by Sheilah Kast, weekdays from 9:30 to 10:00 am, following NPR's Morning Edition. We'll discuss the issues that affect your life and bring you thoughtful and lively conversations with the people who shape those issues -- business people, public officials, scholars, artists, authors, WYPR reporters and other journalists who can take us inside the story. If you want to share a comment, question, or an idea for an interview you'd like to hear, email us at <a href="mailto:ontherecord@wypr.org">ontherecord@wypr.org</a>

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