By Thomas Perez

Thomas Perez is assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights.  The following is excerpted from a speech he delivered at the annual AFL-CIO King Day Celebration.

Two movements—the civil rights movement and the labor movement—are inextricably intertwined because their goals were, and continue to be, essentially the same.

Dr. [Martin Luther] King himself said:

"Our needs are identical with labor’s needs. Decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old-age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children and respect in the community."

There are so many examples of how civil rights and labor interests converged to instigate real social change.

A. Philip Randolph, the man responsible for organizing the Pullman porters into the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, went on to be elected a vice president of the newly merged AFL CIO in 1955.  He was also one of the co-founders of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights in 1950 and later helped organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

In the 1930s, the unionization of workers in the Alaska canneries and the fields of western Washington state gave Filipinos a voice, and an important place in the battle for rights. Filipino activists created the Cannery Workers and Farm Laborers Union, and fought for civil rights and fair treatment.

And on the night before Dr. King was gunned down in Memphis, he spoke of the struggle that had brought him there. He spoke of the deplorable conditions in which African American sanitation workers had been forced to work and of the need for unity to help them overcome their burden.

If Dr. King were here today to celebrate with us, he would no doubt feel a great sense of pride and accomplishment.

But he would not rest.

He would recognize that we continue to see violence fueled by bigotry and hate in our nation, and he would continue to react to such violence with nonviolent protest in an effort to eradicate hate from people’s hearts.

He would speak out against those more subtle brands of discrimination that still permeate so many of our institutions, insisting that all children, no matter the color of their skin, the language they speak or the country from which they come, receive a quality education and the opportunities it brings.

He would continue his quest for economic justice, for all Americans to be able to access the great wealth and promise of our nation.

He would urge our nation’s leaders to move forward on health care reform, repeating his painfully accurate observation that "of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane."

He would join with you, and with your fellow workers nationwide, in calling for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act to ensure that workers can stand up for their rights in the workplace.

He would ask the question: If women outnumber men in the workplace, then why are women still fighting for pay equity in the workplace?

He would stand shoulder to shoulder with our [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] brothers and sisters, recognizing that for them, the promise of equal justice has not yet been fulfilled, and calling on our nation to again rise to the occasion.

In 2010, we have an African American president. And yet discrimination persists—both blatant discrimination and the dangerously subtle kind—in so many of our institutions, showing up in our schools, in our workplaces, in our health care system, in our financial system. 

These are the challenges that face us each day in the Civil Rights Division. And this is why, under the leadership of President Obama and Attorney General [Eric] Holder, the division has embarked upon a period of restoration and transformation.

We are addressing the vast injustice done by the explosion in subprime lending and the subsequent foreclosure crisis, which had devastated families and ravaged communities. 

We are working to ensure that services, programs and public facilities are accessible to individuals with disabilities, who have a vast contribution to make to our society and our communities that can only be maximized if they have equal access. 

We know that the landmark civil rights laws already on the books have holes yet to be filled, and we are working to pursue policies that protect the rights of all individuals.

We are restoring and transforming the Civil Rights Division, not in an effort to re-create the Civil Rights Division of an earlier era, but rather to prepare ourselves to tackle the challenges before us today, and to ensure that we are nimble enough to address the challenges on the horizon.  

There are those who doubt the continued need for civil rights laws, those who will paint their enforcement as controversial. But we will not let them stagnate so that we can avoid such criticism. We are not afraid that we will offend some by protecting and defending the rights of others.

Together, we can continue our great progress. We must continue to work collaboratively for our common goals. As Dr. King said: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

Together, we can continue to move toward justice.