Working for the Beloved Community

He didn't just dream of racial equality—he demanded economic justice for every working person.

Martin Luther King Jr. stood on a Memphis picket line with sanitation workers, publicly called poverty a moral crisis, and declared before union halls across the country that all labor has dignity. On Labor—published exclusively by HarperCollins is an “On” series volume drawn directly from the Dr. King archives—recovers that voice and delivers it with new urgency.

This compilation gathers King's most powerful speeches on labor, wages, poverty, and the dignity of working people, woven together to illuminate the historical moments and moral convictions behind each address. Together, they reveal a visionary whose fight for civil rights was always, at its core, a fight for economic justice.

In these pages, you will encounter:

• "All Labor Has Dignity": King's thundering call to the Memphis sanitation strike — the speech he gave the night before he was killed — in which he declared that the worth of every person who works must be honored
• "The Other America": His searing indictment of a society that creates poverty and then blames the poor, delivered at Stanford University to a nation at a crossroads
• Address to the AFL-CIO Fourth Constitutional Convention: His passionate defense of organized labor and collective bargaining as sacred instruments of human dignity
• "Rediscovering Lost Values": His sweeping moral framework — rooted in the conviction that every worker bears the image of God — that challenged America to measure progress not by profit, but by how it treats the least among us
• "I've Been to the Mountaintop": His final, prophetic address, a soaring vision of a just society where every life and every labor is treated with dignity

Compiled from addresses delivered to labor unions, civil rights gatherings, churches, and university audiences between 1954 and 1968, these speeches span King's entire public ministry. The editorial commentary situates each address within its historical context, tracing how King's economic theology deepened over time—from early sermons on human worth to his final, urgent campaign for the poor.

On Labor is essential reading for anyone who cares about justice, labor rights, and the unfinished work of building a more equitable America. King's words don't simply belong to history. They belong to now.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968), preacher, civil rights leader, and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Peace, inspired and sustained the struggle for freedom, interracial brotherhood, and social justice through his philosophy and strategies of nonviolence.

• Publisher: HarperOne
  
• Publish Date: August 17, 2027 
  
• Pages: 272
  
• Language: English
  
• Type: Paperback
  
• EAN/UPC: 9780063593572
  
• Dimensions: 8 in H | 5.3 in W | 1 lb Wt
  
• BISAC: History / Social History
  Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy
  Literary Collections / Speeches
  History / United States / 20Th Century
  Political Science / Human Rights
  Social Science / Discrimination
  Religion / Sermons / Christian
  Political Science / Political Economy
  Biography & Autobiography / Social Activists