On the occasion of the ILO’s centenary commemoration in 2019, a series of personal stories on how American’s experience work was launched. The purpose was to hear what work meant to these people and to their families across the U.S. as well as their hope for a better future.

The project was given further focus by the inspiring “All Labor Has Dignity” speech of Martin Luther King Jr. which was delivered on 18 March 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, to sanitation workers who were on strike. The following part of his speech brought this project into sharp focus.