On the recordApril 4, 2011
I thank the gentlewoman for her leadership and in bringing us together in these important hours on the floor of the House of Representatives to discuss the issues that are of the deepest concern to communities of color, to working families across this country, and a reminder of the reason why many of us have chosen to serve. {time} 2100 Dr. King knew so deeply that the middle class is, indeed, the backbone of the American economy and that by strengthening the middle class we move our Nation forward. He would understand today that, by giving tax breaks to oil companies and special privileges to the wealthy, we forget our allegiance to the most populous among us--the middle class. He understood the importance of the struggle of sanitation workers, of organizing workers, of making sure that workers were able to take care of themselves and their families as a way of moving workers into the middle class. He understood, like so many of us do, particularly for African American people, that our connection to organized labor is so important because it is through the ability to organize and to fight for our rights against injustice that we are able to move our families into the middle class. Dr. King knew so tremendously the connection between the plight of Negroes and working people. He said at the AFL-CIO convention in December 1961: ``Negroes are almost entirely a working people. There are pitifully few Negro millionaires and few Negro employers.…
