7 Key Ways Labor Rights and Civil Rights are Forever Intertwined

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Political-Action-Legislation/7-Key-Ways-Labor-Rights-and-Civil-Rights-are-Forever-Intertwined

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Memphis Sanitation Workers Remember

Uploaded on Apr 4, 2011
Memphis sanitation workers from the famous 1968 strike stand in solidarity with workers across the country, who are fighting the same battle for rights today.


07/02/2014Sean Savett

As our nation marks the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, we recognize the long-standing relationship between labor and the civil rights movement in our efforts to fight for economic justice. Throughout history, labor unions have joined with the civil rights movement in fighting for equality for all. Here are seven key moments that helped forever intertwine the cause of civil rights with the labor movement.

1. When the AFL and the CIO merged in 1955, the new labor federation created a civil rights department to work with civil rights advocates to eliminate racial discrimination and dismantle segregation across our country. The AFL-CIO was instrumental in advocating passage of the landmark civil rights laws of the 1960s while helping to desegregate unions and create more equality within the union movement.

2. In 1955, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the nation’s first labor union to be led by African-Americans, helped organize the historic Montgomery Bus Boycott. The boycott, which galvanized tens of thousands, was, in part, the brainchild of E.D. Nixon, president of the union’s Alabama chapter and of the state chapter of the NAACP.

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3. Speaking at the AFL-CIO national convention in December 1961, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. emphasized that unions protect workers of all races from exploitation. Highlighting the importance of an enduring alliance between the civil rights movement and labor unions, King famously declared, “If the Negro wins, labor wins.”

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