Commentary: How Black activists aided the labor movement
Dave Kirven
It s an opportune time to reflect on how Black activists helped shape the labor movement.
Most notably was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 when he spoke in support of 1,300 sanitation workers who were on strike for better wages, working conditions and union recognition. He helped show how the labor movement was also about human rights. But it didn’t start out that way.
In 1850, Frederick Douglass helped to organize one of the country’s first Black labor unions, the American League of Colored Laborers, in response to the difficulty that Black workers had in joining white-led unions. In 1869, the first national Black labor union, the Colored National Labor Union, was established and paved the way for future Black-led labor organizations.