Save the Date: At the River I Stand Film Screening 

Please join the UUCM Racial Justice Team in the sanctuary on Saturday, February 22 at 2 p.m. for a film screening of the 1993 documentary At the River I Stand with guest speaker Amanda Goodman-Berry. The film is about the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Amanda Goodman-Berry is a longtime union leader at Delta Airlines, formerly Northwest Airlines. She is part of the current union organizing drive for Delta ramp workers. Amanda and other union organizers have pushed back against Delta using Dr. King as a marketing prop while also trying to block their workers from unionizing. The movie is about an hour long and will be followed by Amanda’s remarks and a group discussion.

This event connects the struggles of the civil rights era with the current struggle for economic justice at one of the South’s premier corporations – Delta Airlines. In 1968 sanitation workers in Memphis took the radical action of an illegal strike after two workers were killed on the job. Martin Luther King joined their struggle for safety, respect on the job, and fair compensation – and it cost him his life. Stirring and shocking footage from the time includes Dr. King’s last speech, given to striking workers the day before he was assassinated.

Delta Airlines portrays itself as a “woke” corporation while simultaneously trying to block its workers’ efforts to unionize. After Delta produced a video about Dr. King that left out his support for economic justice and unionization, guest speaker Amanda Goodman-Berry wrote a letter to Delta leadership inviting them to meet workers in Memphis to talk about what Martin Luther King died for – the very same safety, respect on the job, and fair compensation that everyone deserves and Delta workers are trying to achieve through unionization.

Invite your friends, and help promote the event!

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