Labor in the News: Making room at the banquet table
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
(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