Eugene Victor Debs was an American socialist, political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and five-time candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States. Through his presidential candidacies as well as his work with labor movements, Debs eventually became one of the best-known socialists living in the United States.
Asa Philip Randolph was an American labor unionist and civil rights activist. In 1925, he organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first successful African-American-led labor union. In the early Civil Rights Movement and the Labor Movement, Randolph was a prominent voice. His continuous agitation with the support of fellow labor rights activists against racist labor practices helped lead President Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 8802 in 1941, banning discrimination in the defense industries during World War II. The group then successfully maintained pressure, so that President Harry S. Truman proposed a new Civil Rights Act and issued Executive Orders 9980 and 9981 in 1948, promoting fair employment and anti-discrimination policies in federal government hiring, and ending racial segregation in the armed services.
Abraham Johannes Muste, usually cited as A. J. Muste, was a Dutch-born American clergyman and political activist. He is best remembered for his work in the labor movement, pacifist movement, antiwar movement, and civil rights movement.
Walter Philip Reuther was an American leader of organized labor and civil rights activist who built the United Automobile Workers (UAW) into one of the most progressive labor unions in American history. He considered labor movements not as narrow special interest groups but as instruments to advance social justice and human rights in democratic societies. He leveraged the UAW's resources and influence to advocate for workers' rights, civil rights, women's rights, universal health care, public education, affordable housing, environmental stewardship and nuclear nonproliferation around the world. He believed in Swedish-style social democracy and societal change through nonviolent civil disobedience. He cofounded the AFL-CIO in 1955 with George Meany. He survived two attempted assassinations, including one at home where he was struck by a 12-gauge shotgun blast fired through his kitchen window. He was the fourth and longest serving president of the UAW, serving from 1946 until his death in 1970.
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) was a United States labor union known for its support for "social unionism" and progressive political causes. Led by Sidney Hillman for its first thirty years, it helped found the Congress of Industrial Organizations. It merged with the Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA) in 1976 to form the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU), which merged with the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union in 1995 to create the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE). UNITE merged in 2004 with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE) in 2004 to create a new union known as UNITE HERE. After a bitter internal dispute in 2009, the majority of the UNITE side of the union, along with some of the disgruntled HERE locals left UNITE HERE, and formed a new union named Workers United, led by former UNITE president Bruce Raynor.
The Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU) was a labor union representing workers in two related industries in the United States.
Dolores Clara Fernández Huerta is an American labor leader and civil rights activist who, with Cesar Chavez, is a co-founder of the United Farmworkers Association, which later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee to become the United Farm Workers (UFW). Huerta helped organize the Delano grape strike in 1965 in California and was the lead negotiator in the workers' contract that was created after the strike.
Dennis Louis Serrette was an American civil and labor rights activist. He also was the New Alliance Party candidate for United States President in the 1984 presidential election.
Charles Arthur Hayes was an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Illinois's 1st congressional district, from 1983 to 1993.
The Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) is a nonprofit organization of African American trade union members affiliated with the AFL–CIO. More than 50 different international and national trade unions are represented in CBTU and there are 50 chapters in the United States and one in Ontario, Canada.
Zilphia Horton was an American musician, community organizer, educator, Civil Rights activist, and folklorist. She is best known for her work with her husband Myles Horton at the Highlander Folk School where she is generally credited with turning such songs as "We Shall Overcome", "We Shall Not Be Moved," and "This Little Light of Mine" from hymns into protest songs of the Civil Rights Movement.
Nelson "Jack" Edwards (1917–1974) was Vice President of the UAW, and a founder of CBTU, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists.
María Elena Durazo is an American politician serving in the California State Senate. A Democrat, from 2018 to 2022 she represented the 24th State Senatorial district and has been representing the 26th district since 2022 which encompasses Central Los Angeles, East Los Angeles, and Vernon.
Addie L. Wyatt was a leader in the United States Labor movement and a civil rights activist. Wyatt is known for being the first African-American woman elected international vice president of a major labor union, the Amalgamated Meat Cutters Union. Wyatt began her career in the union in the early 1950s and advanced in leadership. In 1975, with the politician Barbara Jordan, she was the first African-American woman named by Time magazine as Person of the Year.
Crystal Lee Sutton was an American union organizer and advocate who gained fame in 1979 when the film Norma Rae was released, based on events related to her being fired from her job at the J.P. Stevens plant in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, on May 30, 1973, for "insubordination" after she copied an anti-union letter posted on the company bulletin board.
José La Luz is a labor activist and intellectual who organizes, promotes and advocates for worker rights in Puerto Rico and the United States. He was the architect of the grassroots campaign that resulted in the 1998 passage of Puerto Rico's Law 45, which granted bargaining rights and allowed for the unionization of over 120,000 public employees. La Luz was the Associate Director of the Leadership Academy for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees until his retirement in 2014. La Luz also served on the National Political Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America
The International Labor Defense (ILD) (1925–1947) was a legal advocacy organization established in 1925 in the United States as the American section of the Comintern's International Red Aid network. The ILD defended Sacco and Vanzetti, was active in the anti-lynching, movements for civil rights, and prominently participated in the defense and legal appeals in the cause célèbre of the Scottsboro Boys in the early 1930s. Its work contributed to the appeal of the Communist Party among African Americans in the South. In addition to fundraising for defense and assisting in defense strategies, from January 1926 it published Labor Defender, a monthly illustrated magazine that achieved wide circulation. In 1946 the ILD was merged with the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties to form the Civil Rights Congress, which served as the new legal defense organization of the Communist Party USA. It intended to expand its appeal, especially to African Americans in the South. In several prominent cases in which blacks had been sentenced to death in the South, the CRC campaigned on behalf of black defendants. It had some conflict with former allies, such as the NAACP, and became increasingly isolated. Because of federal government pressure against organizations it considered subversive, such as the CRC, it became less useful in representing defendants in criminal justice cases. The CRC was dissolved in 1956. At the same time, in this period, black leaders were expanding the activities and reach of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1954, in a case managed by the NAACP, the US Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional.
Muriel "Manny" Tuteur (1922-2016) was an American labor activist who was a charter member of the Coalition of Labor Union Women and a founding member of the Chicago Day Care Council. She was the director of the Amalgamated Day Care and Health Center from 1969 to 1983, the first union-sponsored day care center in the United States. During this time, she was one of the founders of the Chicago branch of the Coalition of Labor Union Women and served as its president from 1978 to 1982. From 1983 to 1994 she served as the Assistant Director of Education and Political Action for the Chicago branch of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU). When ACTWU merged with the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) to form Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE), Tuteur served as the Assistant Education Director for the Chicago and Central States Board until her retirement. She received many awards and honors during her career, including the Hannah G. Solomon Award from the National Council of Jewish Women in 1988, and was an inductee into the Chicago Women's Hall of Fame in 1989.
Dr. Rosa Slade Gragg was an American activist and politician. She founded the first black vocational school in Detroit, Michigan; and was the advisor to three United States presidents. She was inducted in 1987 into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame.
Alice Buck Norwood Spearman Wright was an American liberal feminist advocating for human relations. From 1954 to 1967, she served as the executive director of the South Carolina Council on Human Relations, which was an affiliate of the South Carolina Division of the Southern Regional Council (SRC). She directed the council to participate in the Voter Education Project, which helped to promote compliance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
