Labor in the News: Making room at the banquet table

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)“The caption for a photo that appeared with the April 7 (Washington Post) Metro article ‘Activists riding a fresh wave of optimism ahead of immigration rally’ identified a worker cleaning ‘a statue at Union Station.’ But what a statue!” wrote Community Services Agency Executive Director Kathleen McKirchy in a letter published in The Post on April 13. “It’s of A. Philip Randolph, the organizer of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, prime mover behind the original March on Washington, longtime spokesman for the rights of African American workers and author of the famous line, ‘At the banquet table of nature, there are no reserved seats. You get what you can take, and you keep what you can hold. If you can’t take anything, you won’t get anything, and if you can’t hold anything, you won’t keep anything. And you can’t take anything without organization.’ How gratified he would be by this movement and the mobilization of individuals intent on securing a path to U.S. citizenship.” - photo by Linda Davidson/The Washington Post