Working people descended on Memphis, Tennessee, last year to recognize the 50-year anniversary of King’s death. Marching alongside striking sanitation workers, King had spent his final days upholding the central role of collective action and unionism in building a more just future.

“So on this day, we are pledging to finish what the sanitation workers started,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said. “We are making a promise to our nation and each other to win the dream Dr. King died for….We are the American labor movement, the people who built this country into the most prosperous nation the world has ever known. And we ain’t done yet.”