When NYSUT co-founder Albert Shanker was briefly jailed for leading a strike in 1968, he received a check for $10 to help him post bail — from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Three years earlier, Shanker helped raise money to donate vehicles to be used by King in a voter registration drive in Alabama.

The long history of cooperation between the civil rights and labor movements is celebrated in a new poster. The concept was developed by NYSUT's Civil & Human Rights Committee, with design work from the NYSUT Communications Department. The poster displays images of organized labor and civil rights proponents working together to advance social causes, and carries the message: "Labor and civil rights: A history of strength, spirit and solidarity in the struggle for justice."

The poster is a valuable year-long teaching tool for classrooms. Featured in the poster are Shanker and King; labor and human rights advocate Cesar Chavez; civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks; the landmark sanitation workers strike in Memphis in 1968; rallies aimed at desegregation and increases in school funding; and images from worker strikes and demonstrations promoting gay rights, gender equality, living wages and more.

NYSUT Executive Vice President Alan Lubin, who works with the union's Civil and Human Rights Committee, said the poster will help draw attention to the important role labor unions play. The committee is chaired by Ken Kurzweil of the Bedford Teachers Association.

"This poster commemorates NYSUT's historic involvement in civil and human rights and social justice issues in New York, our nation, and around the world," said Lubin. "I am proud that our Civil and Human Rights Committee wanted to honor this legacy with a poster that is now available to NYSUT's members."

— Kevin Hart