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Remembering the 30th Anniversary March on Washington at the 60th

A Participant Who Stood Out Then and Stands Out Today

Written and photographed by photojournalist Earl Dotter

In the afternoon of August 28th,1993, the humidity and heat were overwhelming. I had spent the morning photographing on assignment for the United Autoworkers (UAW) for its magazine, Solidarity. From around the country, autoworkers were attending the 30th anniversary of the I Have Dream speech that Martin Luther King gave on August 23rd,1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, a speech that galvanized the Civil Rights Movement.

Among the photos that I took that day at the 1993 commemoration of the speech was one of a quite striking woman, Raymona Middleton, a third generation Washingtonian who in 1963, at the tender age of 13, had begged her mother to let her attend the march to hear King speak.

CLICK HERE for the rest of Earl’s report and photos.

APWU MeetUp: 17th and Constitution Northwest; 11:30a

March on Washington 60th Anniversary: Lincoln Memorial; Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023; 8 a.m.–1 p.m.; March: 1–3 p.m.

Waiting for MoJo

All the tickets for the September 19 performance of Mother Jones in Heaven have been snapped up, but a waitlist has been created; click here to sign up.

Rochester Labor Film Series launches Sept. 1

The Rochester Labor Film Series launches Friday, Sept 1 with a 7:30p screening of IKIRU, Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 classic, about a bureaucrat as good as dead while living, who suddenly struggles hard to live once he learns he is dying. Click here for details and tickets. The Rochester series has been running annually since 1989.

"Hot Union Summer" Radio Show

Tune in to WPFW 89.3FM on September 4 from 8a to 2p for the Hot Union Summer Labor Day show. Hosted by Labor Heritage Power Hour hosts Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant, topics include AI and workers, Pride at Work, women who “run for office, not for coffee,” labor music with Radical Songbook host Michael Funke, international solidarity with Bill Fletcher Jr., and the first-ever Labor Radio Podcast Network Happy Solidarity Hour. You can also listen online.

Garlock LHF fundraiser closing in on goal

With nearly $1,200 in contributions, incoming LHF Executive Director Chris Garlock’s 200-mile Thames Path Walk fundraiser is 78% of the way to the $1,500 goal, with just a few weeks before he hits the trail. “We’ve got a busy schedule of great labor arts events coming up this Fall and your contributions will enable LHF to keep the momentum going,” said Garlock. Click here for details and to contribute.

NOTE: Contributions go directly to LHF and ARE tax-deductible.

Want to organize your own LHF fundraiser? Email us at info@laborheritage.org!

THIS WEEK’S LABOR HERITAGE POWER HOUR

APWU’s Daleo Freeman on the 60th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington; previews of our Hot Union Summer Labor Day show with Women’s Hour and Pride Hour clips; Billy Bragg’s “Rich Men Earning North of a Million.” Plus, remembering Malvina Reynolds on Labor History in 2:00.

PICKET SIGN OF THE WEEK

Follow the UAW on Twitter here.

Got picket sign? Email it to us! info@laborheritage.org

LABOR VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Labor History by Pat Wynne, with vocals by Pat Wynne and Jon Fromer on guitar. From Working Women's Songs (cassette), 1992 San Francisco.

Posted by Saul Schniderman.

Got labor video? Email it to us! info@laborheritage.org

LABOR SONG OF THE WEEK

Billy Bragg - Rich Men Earning North of a Million

“Since I saw that clip of Oliver Anthony singing his song 'Rich Men North of Richmond', the ghost of Woody Guthrie has been whispering in my ear," says Bragg. "‘Help that guy out’ Woody keeps telling me ‘Let him know there's a way to deal with those problems he's singing about’. So today I sat down and wrote this response to Mr Anthony's song, for people like him and people like you.”

Got a labor song? Email it to us! info@laborheritage.org

LABOR ART OF THE WEEK

"It's Better in a Union"

The AFL-CIO’s 2023 theme -- "It's Better in a Union" -- features two retro-inspired logos; here’s one. Share on Twitter using the hashtag #ItsBetterInAUnion! And if you want a free sticker and a way to show union pride this Labor Day, sign up for AFL-CIO text messages and request a sticker.

Got labor art? Email it to us! info@laborheritage.org

LABOR POEM OF THE WEEK

"I Have a Dream"; Martin Luther King .Jr

August 28, 1963

Got labor poetry? Email it to us! info@laborheritage.org

TODAY'S LABOR QUOTE

“We are the advanced guard of a massive moral revolution for jobs and freedom.”

A. Philip Randolph

Got a labor quote (or joke)? Email it to us! info@laborheritage.org

LHF's comprehensive listing of labor's cultural events: music, films, theater, books, history and more...

Click here to add your labor arts event!

BOOK: Art Works

Sun, August 27, 4:30pm – 5:30pm; Explore Booksellers, 221 E Main St, Aspen, CO 81611

Tue, August 29, 6pm – 7pm; Tattered Cover Book Store & Café Colfax, 2526 E Colfax Ave, Denver, CO 80206

“Art Works: How organizers and artists are creating a better world together” by Ken Grossinger; An inside look at the organizers and artists on the front lines of political mobilization and social change.

NoVA Labor Book Club

Tue, August 29, 7:30pm – 8:30pm

This month we are reading "What We Owe Each Other: A New Social Contract for a Better Society," by Minouche Shafik. The author takes you through the stages of life from having children to work to old age and shows how our social contract is broken and how we can do better.

FILM: IKIRU

Fri, September 1, 7:30pm – 9:30pm

Dryden Theatre, 900 East Ave, Rochester, NY 14607, USA (map)

2023 Rochester Labor Film Series (33rd annual) Ticket info here

HISTORY: Commemoration of the Strike of 1922-1923

Monday, Sep 4, 2023

Windber, PA

Miner descendants will gather at historic "Bantley Place" cover of Millie Beik's The Miners of Windber, with "Tell Their Story" collecting mining history from descendants and discussion of the strike. Bill Koshute 814-248-0947 wkoshute@comcast.net

Reuther-Pollack Labor History Symposium

Saturday, Sep 2, 2023

First State Capitol at Eoff Street in Wheeling WV

Admission is $30 (students $10 ). Tickets may be purchased in advance through Eventbrite or by snail mail (send check to WALS Foundation, 1413 Eoff Street, Wheeling, WV 26003) or in person by contacting Sean Duffy at lunchwithbooks@yahoo.com.

HOT UNION SUMMER: WPFW’s Annual Labor Day Show

Mon, September 4, 8am – 2pm

WPFW 89.3 FM

Hosted by Chris Garlock & Elise Bryant

LABOR HISTORY TODAY

Check out this week's Labor History Today podcast, Debs’ radio station: Filmmaker Yale Strom ("American Socialist: The Life and Times of Eugene Victor Debs") remembers WEVD, the Chicago radio station named for labor leader Eugene Victor Debs; Dan Duncan celebrates the founding of the AFL-CIO’s Maritime Trades Department; Saul Schniderman marks the anniversary of the publication of the IWW’s "Little Red Song Book," and Ben Blake’s labor history Object of the Week.

August 25: Birth of Allan Pinkerton, whose strike-breaking detectives ("Pinks") gave us the word "fink" - 1819

August 26: Fannie Sellins and Joseph Starzeleski are murdered by coal company guards on a picket line in Brackenridge, Penn. Sellins was a United Mine Workers of America organizer and Starzeleski was a miner – 1919

August 27: Baxter Leach, a union activist who helped organize the 1968 sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis, dies in the city at age 79. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated in Memphis while there to support the strikers. 2019

LABOR HISTORY QUIZ OF THE WEEK

Who was the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters' first organizer?

Last week's quiz: The alternate title of The Little Red Songbook is all of these:

I.W.W. Songs; Songs of the Industrial Workers of the World; Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent; Songs of the Workers, on the Road, in the Jungles, and in the Shops

"The worker must have bread,

but she must have roses, too."

Please CLICK HERE NOW to pledge your financial support to our 2023 program, which this year includes our annual Solidarity Forever Award, the Great Labor Arts Exchange, the DC Labor FilmFest and much more (check out our website for details!).

Donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

RECENT NEWSLETTERS

Garlocks’ LHF fundraiser on way to goal

Solidarity and song at the UALE/LHF Southern Women’s School (8/10)

Labor Heritage Power Hour: We Will Never Stop (8/4)

In DC, “Barbie” inside, SAG-AFTRA outside (7/26)

Labor Heritage Power Hour launches today (7/20)

"They stand on the wrong side of history” (7/19)

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