Martin Luther King, third from left, listens to a speaker during an assembly at Morehouse College, in Atlanta, GA, in 1948. King subsequently graduated from the college with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology. (AP Photo)
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is welcomed with a kiss by his wife Coretta after leaving court in Montgomery, Ala., March 22, 1956. King was found guilty of conspiracy to boycott city buses in a campaign to desegregate the bus system, but a judge suspended his $500 fine pending appeal. (AP Photo/Gene Herrick)
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights leader, shakes hands with Paul Dietrich just before a bus of Freedom Riders left Montgomery, Alabama, May 24, 1961. Dietrich, ministerial student from Virginia, joined the Freedom Riders. (AP Photo)
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., speaks to an overflow crowd in Detroit's Cobo Hall Arena on Sunday, June 24, 1963, following the Freedom March. An estimated 100,000 people paraded to the hall through downtown Detroit and gathered in the hall and overflowed outside to hear him speak. (AP Photo)
The Rev. Martin Luther King, third from right, head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was among national figures present on July 2, 1964, as President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Bill. From left, standing , as Johnson passes some of the 72 pens used: Rep. Roland Libonati, D-Ill; Rep. Peter Rodino, D-NJ; Rev. King; Rep. Emanuel Celler, D-NY, and Whitney Young, executive director of the National Urban League. (AP Photo)
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. , right, chats with Greenwood African Americans on their front porch during his door-to-door campaign, telling all African Americans to register to vote and support his Miss. Freedom Democratic party. King arrived on July 21, 1964 in Greenwood for the beginning of a 5-day tour of Mississippi towns. (AP Photo/JAB)
Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King displays pictures of three civil rights workers at news conference on Dec. 4, 1964 in New York City. The workers were slain in Mississippi the previous summer. Dr. King commended the FBI for its arrests in Mississippi on Dec. 4 in connection with the slayings. King held photos of Andrew Goodman; James Chaney; and Michael Schwerner. The three civil rights workers disappeared in Mississippi near the town of Philadelphia, northeast of Jackson. (AP Photo/ John Lindsay)
In smoke and fire from hundreds of torches, Dr. Martin Luther King arrives with his wife Coretta Scott King, to deliver the traditional address of the winner of Nobel Peace Prize at the University of Oslo's Festival Hall, Dec. 11, 1964. Behind left: Rev. Ralph Abernathy, who Dr. King especially introduced as his trusted comrade from 13 times in jail together. (AP Photo)
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shakes his fist during a speech in Selma, Ala., Feb. 12, 1965. King was engaged in a battle with Sheriff Jim Clark over voting rights and voter registration in Selma. (AP Photo/Horace Cort)
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. locks arms with his aides as he leads a march of several thousands to the court house in Montgomery, Ala., March 17, 1965. From left: Rev. Ralph Abernathy, James Foreman, King, Jesse Douglas, Sr., and John Lewis (partially out of frame). (AP Photo)
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., uses a megaphone to address demonstrators assembled at the courthouse in Montgomery, Alabama, March 17, 1965 after a meeting with Sheriff Mac Butler left and other public officials. (AP Photo)
A Polish refugee Jozef Mlot-Mroz of Salem, Mass., showed up at the originating point of a civil rights march led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., carrying a sign denouncing King in Boston, April 23, 1965. Assistant parade marshals gathered around him arm-in-arm and quickly isolated Mroz. (AP Photo)
The Rev. Martin Luther King, integration leader, addresses a crowd on a street in Lakeview, New York May 12, 1965. The Nobel Prize winner arrived in the day from Atlanta, Ga., for a whirlwind tour of Nassau County to advance the cause of African Americans in that area. (AP Photo)
During a visit to a pool hall, Feb. 18, 1966, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., campaigning in Chicago for better living conditions for African Americans, demonstrates some proficiency with a cue. (AP Photo)
Neshoba County Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price, left, halts a civil rights march at the Neshoba County Courthouse in Philadelphia led by Dr. Martin Luther King, right, and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, June 21, 1966. The march was held in memory of three civil rights workers killed in 1963 in Neshoba County. (AP Photo)
Dr. Martin Luther King, left, with Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference banquet in Jackson, Mississippi, Aug. 8, 1966. (AP Photo)
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., tells a press conference in Chicago, March 24, 1967 that civil rights demonstrations in Chicago “…will be on a much more massive scale than last summer.” King said marches will include some by African American pupils to all-white schools. (AP Photo/Charles Harrity)
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stands with other civil rights leaders on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., on April 3, 1968, a day before he was assassinated at approximately the same place. From left are Hosea Williams, Jesse Jackson, King, and Ralph Abernathy. The 39-year-old Nobel Laureate was the proponent of non-violence in the 1960's American civil rights movement. King is honored with a national U.S. holiday celebrated in January. (AP Photo/Charles Kelly)
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is seen here with Rev. Jesse Jackson, left, just prior to his final public appearance to address striking Memphis sanitation workers on April 4, 1968. King was assassinated later that day outside his motel room. (AP Photo/Charles Kelly)
Children pass the bier of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Atlanta, Georgia, April 6, 1968 after the body was placed on public view. (AP Photo/Horace Cort)
A brace of plow mules draws the farm wagon bearing the casket of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., along the funeral procession route in Atlanta, Ga., April 9, 1968. The civil rights leader was standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel when he was killed by a rifle bullet on April 4, 1968. James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to the killing and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He died in prison in 1998. (AP Photo)
An estimated 1,000 fast-food workers across the United States went on strike Friday over low wages, staging protests in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. ahead of the federal holiday next week.
The demonstrations took place in more than 15 cities, including Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis and Los Angeles. The strike was organized by supporters of Fight for $15 and a Union, the labor advocacy group that has been pushing to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour and grant collective bargaining rights to fast-food employees.
Fight for $15 organizing director Allynn Umel said her organization’s cause is one King would have championed, noting that the civil rights icon marched in support of labor rights for Memphis sanitation workers the day before he was assassinated in 1968.
“There are workers in the South still continuing to carry on that legacy to fight for racial and economic justice because they know those fights are intertwined,” Umel told CNN Business on Friday.
Nearly 20% of the estimated 3.9 million fast-food workers in America are Black, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, though Black Americans make up just 13% of the U.S. population. Umel said fast-food companies that support King’s legacy and want to continue his fight against institutional racism can start by increasing their workers’ pay and letting them unionize.
“Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour is among the most powerful tools to lift up Black and Brown workers,” she said.
The striking protesters work at many of the country’s most popular chains, including McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Burger King.
McDonald’s cook Rita Blalock, 54, of Raleigh, North Carolina, was one of dozens of fast-food employees participating in a car caravan protest outside a McDonald’s restaurant in the nearby city of Durham on Friday.
Blalock said her employer cut her hours back in March when COVID-19-related lockdowns caused many fast-food chains to lose business. Since then, Blalock, who says she makes $10 an hour, has been struggling to pay her bills. She said McDonald’s could improve her situation by raising their minimum wage nationally and granting workers like her guaranteed benefits, including medical insurance and paid sick leave.
“I couldn’t pay rent, couldn’t eat a lot of times,” she told CNN Business. “If you can’t go to work but so many hours, you don’t have enough to cover what you need to cover in the first place.”
McDonald’s said it unequivocally supports the need for racial equality and social justice and that Friday’s strike doesn’t reflect how it has protected and provided employment to more than 800,000 people during the pandemic. The company stopped lobbying against increases to the federal minimum wage in 2019, and says elected officials have a responsibility to debate, change and set the standards.
Wanda Lavender works as a manager at a Popeyes in Milwaukee. The 39-year-old single mother of six participated in a car caravan protest outside a McDonald’s in Milwaukee Friday afternoon. She said she makes $12 an hour and works more than 50 hours a week at Popeyes. Lavender says she hasn’t been getting paid for sick leave or vacation days since 2019.
“These are the things we were fighting for over 50 years ago and we’re fighting for those same things now,” she said.
The life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
Here’s a look back at some of the many iconic moments of the slain civil rights leader’s march through the 1960s for equality and justice.
