BALDWIN — CSEA and community members joined together at Local 830’s 23rd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Ceremony and Luncheon to honor the life and legacy of The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
At the event, scholarships were handed out to deserving recipients and community members were honored for their activism.
In addition to his civil rights work, King had strong ties to the Labor Movement. He was in Memphis Tenn. to support striking AFSCME sanitation workers, when he was assassinated on April 4, 1968. He had made his final
“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” address to these worker the evening before his death.
In an address to AFL-CIO members on Dec. 11, 1961, King spoke about why labor unions are important, a message that resonates today.
“The labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it,” King said. “By raising the living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of production.Those who attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them.”
King’s legacy lives on in our members’ fight for workers’ rights.
— Wendi Bowie
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- The Rev. Lynnwood Earl Deans delivers the keynote address. (Photo by Rich Dopkin)
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- Seated, from left, event founder and Nassau County CSEA Retiree Barbara J. Jones and Unity Committee Co-Chair Kelvin Lewis. Standing, from left, Nassau County Local/Nassau University Medical Center Unit Vice President Larry Washington, Nassau Local 830 office staff member Yvette Gaynor, Unity Committee members Juanita McKinnies, Eisha Hall, Kathleen Zoeller, Michele Greenblatt, Melody Easterling, Shirley Lassic, Concetta M. Walker and Vera McDowell. (Photo by Rich Dopkin)
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- Concetta Walker leads attendees in singing, what is affectionately known as the Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” (Photo by Rich Dopkin)
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- First row, from left, Barbara J. Jones Scholarship recipient Samantha Jasmin, Hempstead Councilwoman Dorothy L. Goosby, Barbara J. Jones Scholarship recipient Nicolette Galvez and keynote speaker The Rev. Lynnwood Earl Deans. Second row, from left, Honoree Chaplain Robert L. Johnson and Barbara J. Jones Scholarship recipient Christian Castano. Third row, from left, CSEA Nassau Local 830 President Jerry Laricchiuta and Long Island Region President Nick LaMorte. (Photo by Rich Dopkin)
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- CBTU Long Island Chapter Treasurer Stan Bergman and Nassau County Local Unity Committee Member Concetta Walker welcome Long Island Region President Nick LaMorte to the luncheon. (Photo by Rich Dopkin)
