The Irish in America have a proud tradition of labor radicalism. In the 1870s, the Molly Maguires organized miners in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania. Mary Harris “Mother” Jones fought the workers’ corner in the United Mine Workers and Industrial Workers of the World, where she was joined by another Irishwoman, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. Even James Connolly and James Larkin, founding fathers of Irish syndicalism, organized workers in the United States for many years of their lives.

But few Irish American radicals have made a more lasting impression than Mike Quill. One of the founders and later iconic leaders of the Transport Workers Union, Quill blazed a trail from industrial unionism to anti-fascism and civil rights advocacy, the latter of which led to a close relationship with Martin Luther King Jr.

“Mike Quill was a fighter for decent things all his life,” King would later say: “Irish independence, labor organization, and racial equality. He spent his life ripping the chains of bondage from his fellow man.”