Union activists and community supporters prepare to be arrested in a massive civil disobedience action, September 2006. The signs reading “I am a Human Being” and “Soy un Ser Humano” invoke the famous signs worn by African American sanitation workers on strike in Memphis in 1968 that read, “I am a Man.” Maria Elena Durazo (center in red shirt), leader of Local 11 and the County Federation of Labor, was deeply influenced by the philosophy of nonviolence advocated by Rev. James Lawson.
