Black History Month 2022 begins as the rights of working people are under continuous attack. While we have made tremendous progress towards equality in some respects, white supremacy and racist economic systems have perpetuated or evolved other attacks to try and keep this country from fulfilling its promise of liberty and justice for all. We […]
Read More“When we’re not willing to have hard conversations about race, we lose the opportunity to have a real conversation.” A Q&A with labor and community organizer Tanya Wallace-Gobern
As we continue to celebrate Black-excellence this month, we want to shine a light on movement builders who are empowering Black workers to lead. This week we interviewed an inspiring leader who is opening up the labor movement to ALL working people, creating safe spaces for Black workers, and putting the Black-worker experience on full […]
Read More“Society is So Much More When All People are Free from the Violence of Poverty and Low Wages” A Q&A with Organizer and Social Justice Activist Cherri Murphy
Black History Month is a time to reflect on those in the struggle for racial equality who’ve moved us forward through bold and principled action. But’s it’s also a time to look to the future and the Black activist leaders making history NOW to end white supremacy and tear down systems of oppression that harm […]
Read MoreBlack History Month: Yvonne Walker: Celebrating hard-earned rights
Voting gives us a voice. It gives us a seat at the table. It’s the great equalizer to money and power, and has been a central pillar to our democracy since the inception of the United States. But due to centuries of institutional and socialized racism in America, African Americans did not have the right […]
Read MoreUnions an Integral Part of Dr. King’s Dream
“In the days to come, organized labor will increase its importance in the destinies of Negroes. Automation is imperceptibly but inexorably producing dislocations, skimming off unskilled labor from the industrial force. The displaced are flowing into proliferating service occupations. These enterprises are traditionally unorganized and provide low wage scales with longer hours. The Negroes pressed […]
Read MoreHonoring Labor and Civil Rights: Activist C.L. Dellums
Cottrell Laurence Dellums, also known as C.L. Dellums, was a prominent African American trade union activist, and uncle and role model to Congressman Ron Dellums. C.L Dellums was born in Corsicana, Texas on January 3, 1900. He moved to the San Francisco Bay Area when he was a young man to escape racial and economic […]
Read MoreMartin Luther King Jr., union man
If Martin Luther King Jr. still lived, he’d probably tell people to join unions. King understood racial equality was inextricably linked to economics. He asked, “What good does it do to be able to eat at a lunch counter if you can’t buy a hamburger?” Those disadvantages have persisted. Today, for instance, the wealth of […]
Read MoreReverend Addie L. Wyatt: A Champion of Labor and Civil Rights
In celebration of Black History Month, we honor the black unionists who have been monumental figures in progressing workers’ rights. While not a household name, the Reverend Addie L. Wyatt had a major impact on both the labor movement and civil rights movement… Born in 1924 in Brookhaven, Mississippi, Wyatt grew up during a time in […]
Read MoreJoin the Nationwide Moment of Silence
Cities and towns across the country will fall silent on February 1, the start of Black History Month, in memory of the two Memphis sanitation workers whose deaths triggered the historic 1968 sanitation workers’ strike.
Read MoreTwenty-Nine Days to Celebrate Black History Isn’t Enough
Black History Month is meant to celebrate the achievements of African Americans in the United States. While we have made huge strides toward overcoming the barriers that have set us back—we have not fully overcome the damages that centuries of exploitation, oppression and free labor have had on our communities due to enslavement and Jim Crow laws. Many people tell our community that we should “get over it” and “slavery is over, the playing field is equal”—but it’s no secret that structural racism has continued to plague our community with higher unemployment rates, over incarceration and a wider education gap than whites and other communities of color.
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