Jimmy Hoffa, controversial labor leader from Brazil, Indiana

<p dir="ltr"><img src= "http://hoosierhistorylive.org/images/Justin-Clark.PNG" alt= "Justing Clark" width="190" height="271" align="right" />Later this year, a historic marker is planned for the birthplace in <strong>Brazil</strong>, Ind., of <strong><a href= "https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jimmy-Hoffa">Jimmy Hoffa</a></strong>, the controversial labor leader whose disappearance in 1975 remains one of the country's major missing persons cases.</p> <p dir="ltr">Hoffa, the powerful, long-time president of the <strong><a href="https://teamster.org/">International Brotherhood of the Teamsters</a></strong>, met with <strong><a href= "https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1964/king/biographical/">Rev. Martin Luther King Jr</a></strong>. in 1965 to make a donation to social justice work. Even so, Hoffa had "a complicated relationship with the civil rights movement," according to our guest, <strong>Justin Clark</strong>, digital initiatives director for the <strong><a href= "https://www.in.gov/history/">Indiana Historical Bureau</a></strong>.</p> <p dir="ltr">For the historical bureau, a division of the <strong><a href="https://www.in.gov/library/">Indiana State Library</a></strong>, Justin has produced and written a <strong><a href= "https://blog.newspapers.library.in.gov/when-jimmy-hoffa-met-dr-martin-luther-king-jr/">video essay about Hoffa's meeting with Rev. King</a></strong>, as well as other aspects of the life of the labor leader, who was convicted of jury tampering in 1964 and served nearly four years in prison. He vanished after going to a restaurant in Detroit to meet with men connected to organized crime. Despite extensive investigations for several years, Hoffa's body never has been found; he was declared legally dead in 1982.</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src= "http://hoosierhistorylive.org/images/Jimmy-Hoffa-and-MLK.JPG" alt= "Hoffa met with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965 to make a donation to social justice work." width="312" height="364" align="left" />Our guest Justin Clark, who has researched labo