Quotes & milestones

You'll find when visiting Detroit's Labor Legacy Monument

Labor's Achievements are America's Strength

The Following Quotations Appear on the Arch:

On Each Side of the Arch:

• The arc of history bends toward justice. Martin Luther King Jr.

On the Walkway:

• If there is no struggle, there is no progress.  Frederick Douglass - Anti-slavery leader.
• We want more schoolhouses and less jails...more justice and less revenge.  Samuel Gompers - First president, American Federation of Labor

On the Dais:

• Education is the golden key that unlocks the potential of human growth.  Walter P. Reuther - UAW president, 1946-1970.
• Women were in labor before men were born.  Myra Wolfgang - Hotel workers' leader.
• The future depends on what we do in the present.  Mahatma Gandhi - Anti-colonialist leader, India.
• We want bread, and roses, too.  Lawrence (Mass.) strike slogan, 1912.
• We just come to work here, we don't come to die.  Harry Stamper - Longshoreman, musician.
• An injury to one is the concern of all.  Knights of Labor (f. 1869) slogan.
• Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.  Martin Luther King Jr. - Civil rights pioneer.
• 'Each for himself' is the bosses' plea.  A union of all will make you free.  1869 Detroit Labor Day parade sign.
• Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.  Mary Harris (Mother) Jones - Union advocate and organizer.
• Don't mourn, organize.  Joe Hill - IWW organizer.
• El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido.  The people united will never be defeated.  Cesar Chavez - Founder, United Farm Workers
• If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution.  Attributed to Emma Goldman - Radical, feminist.
• The strongest bond of human sympathy, outside of the family relation, should be one uniting all working people of all nations.  Abraham Lincoln - President, 1861-1865.
• Ten hours or no sawdust.  Saginaw lumber strike slogan for shorter workday, 1880.
• There is a direct relationship between the ballot box and the breadbox.  Walter P. Reuther - UAW president, 1946-1970.
• We're just honest working men that have been pushed so far and so hard that we can't keep it up any longer.  Frances O'Rourke - 1937 UAW-GM Flint sitdown striker.
• Labor creates all wealth.  Adam Smith - 18th century economist.
• Some men rob you with a six-gun, others rob you with a fountain pen.  Woody Guthrie - musician and organizer.
• When I rise it will be with the ranks and not from the ranks.  Eugene V. Debs - Union leader and Socialist politician.
• There is a time to be tough, a time to be adament, a time to be open to compromise, and a time to reach agreement.  James R. Hoffa - Teamsters union president, 1957-1971.
• Power goes to two poles - to those who've got the money and those who've got the people.  Saul Alinsky - Community organizer and writer.
• They can cut off our fingers one by one, but if we join together we will make a powerful fist.  Little Turtle - Miami Indian, 1791.
• If I went to work in a factory, the first thing I'd do would be to join a union.  Franklin D. Roosevelt - President, 1932-1945.
• Freedom is never granted; it is won.  Justice is never given; it is exacted.  A. Philip Randolph - Union and civil-rights leader.
• What is wanted by the ruling circle is a docile, spineless, unorganized and inarticulate army of workers.  Nelson Mandela - South African freedom fighter and president.
• Black people worked 350 years without a paycheck.  Janice Hale Benson - Wayne State University professor.
• All great reforms, great movements, come from the bottom and not the top.  John Peter Altgeld - Illinois governor, 1893-1897.
• What labor is demanding all over the world today is ...a right to a voice in the conduct of industry.  Sidney Hillman - First president, Clothing Workers union.
• The future of labor is the future of America.  John L. Lewis - President, Mine Workers, 1920-1960.
• Eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep, and eight hours for what we will.  19th century slogan for 8-hour workday.
• We make our own history.  UAW 50th anniversary slogan, 1985.
• Who will take care of you, how'll you get by, When you're too old to work and too young to die.  Joe Glazer - labor singer/songwriter.
• Teachers want what children need.  Mary Ellen Riordan - Detroit Federation of Teacher president.
• We want liberated visions in history remembered.  Melba Boyd - Wayne State University professor.
• Democracy cannot be static.  Whatever is static is dead.  Eleanor Roosevelt - Human rights leader; first lady, 1932-1945.
• Cast me not out in my old age.  Isaiah
• If the federal government can pay farmers for not raising food, they can subsidize honest jobs for people.  Coleman A. Young - Detroit Mayor.
• The labor of a human being is not a commodity or an article of commerce.  Clayton Anti-Trust Act, 1914.
• I believe people should have the dignity of working for a living wage.  Clement Kern - Pastor, Most Holy Trinity Church and Detroit's "labor priest"

These Milestones of Labor are engraved on stones throughout the spiral walkway at the Labor Legacy Landmark:

• Free Public Education
• Ending Child Labor
• Equality for Woman
• Protection of Civil Rights
• Social Security
• Shorter Worktime/More Leisure
• Right to Organize
• Collective Bargaining Agreements
• Job Security
• Health Insurance
• Guaranteed Pensions
• Grievance Procedures
• Health and Safety Protection
• Human Rights
• Solidarity Across Borders