BEAVER-LAWRENCE CENTRAL LABOR COUNCIL HUMAN RIGHTS BANQUET

FEATURING WILLIAM LUCY

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE BY BOBBY SHORT

APRIL 10th – 6:00 SOCIAL HOUR 7:00 MEAL

AT THE FEZ IN ALIQUIPPA

PDA TABLE $30 PER PERSON

TO JOIN US CALL TINA SHANNON 724-843-0545

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WHY I WANT TO HEAR WHAT WILLIAM LUCY HAS TO SAY

BY TINA B SHANNON

 March 26, 2010

Although I’ve never met him, I’m looking forward to hearing William Lucy speak. Learning about him enabled me to imagine a world where justice triumphs.

       When the Beaver-Lawrence County Labor Council announced that he was going to be the keynote speaker at the upcoming human rights banquet, I didn’t know who he was. But I thought this would be a good opportunity to gather people together to support our friends in labor.

       I heard that he was a labor leader who had worked with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis. But I wasn’t really excited about William Lucy speaking in Beaver County until I did some research.

       William Lucy left college before he received his degree. He became an assistant materials and research engineer for Costa County California. There he found his life’s work, but it wasn’t in the materials and research department. William Lucy joined AFSCME, the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees. Soon he was working for the union.

       A year later, in 1968, the Memphis sanitation workers went on strike against terrible working conditions and shamefully low wages. The union sent him to Memphis to work on the campaign. This is the campaign that developed the slogan “I am a man”.

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