Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated 40 years ago this month in Memphis, Tenn. He was supporting the rights of sanitation workers to form a union and saw their fight to become part of labor's family as a natural extension of the fight for social justice, and human and civil rights.

To honor King's contributions, NYSUT has brought a prestigious photo exhibit to the RA on loan from the Wayne State University library. It features dozens of moving photographs that chronicle the events leading up to King's assassination, strongly emphasizing the strikers' successful fight to unionize and the great turmoil in the weeks after his death. The exhibit will be on display on the 3rd Floor Promenade Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m and Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

In the 1960s, the Memphis sanitation workers were treated as the lowest caste by a deeply racist society. After two of their colleagues were killed on the job by unsafe equipment, the workers began their fight to have a voice on the job. They drew tremendous community support, through mass demonstrations and a boycott of downtown businesses. A picket line placard from the era simply and radically summed up the workers' effort: "I am a man." That slogan and photos of the striking workers have become emblematic of that period.

Affirming the continued relevance of King's work, a recent study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research showed that, four decades after his death, African-Americans who are union members continue to make more money and have better benefits than their non-union peers.