May Day and the intersection of civil rights and workers' rights

It took a bit, but labor eventually got on board with protecting everyone's rights.

The crowd at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

“There's a real inflection point this May Day,” Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers, said about the day unions worldwide attempt to recognize workers, their contributions, and the importance of fair employment practices and worker rights.

As 80 nations, including the United States, witness union leaders rally for International Workers Day, there is an intersection of civil rights and worker rights.

Union-organized rallies are taking shape, evoking memories of the fight for worker rights alongside civil rights. It wasn’t always a happy marriage of ideas. National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial emphasized that African Americans in union membership and leadership are “a mixed record.”

Black people initially weren’t allowed to join unions or be in leadership. Unions used discriminatory practices to have Black workers fired from jobs, particularly in the South. Today, in contrast, we see “broader acceptance in leadership for African Americans in the public employee unions like the teachers and AFSME and others,” Morial said.

He lamented that “many unions refused to admit Blacks.” That reality of a “closed-door policy” birthed Black unions, which moved Black workers into Black middle-income status. That significant socio-economic upward climb also helped fuel African Americans' pursuit of equality and civil rights.

Leon Russell, board chair of the NAACP, told the Contrarian, “The concept of two movements with one mission developed out of the red-baiting of the McCarthy era.” Red-baiting was to falsely accuse someone of being a communist. Both the fight for workers’ rights and the fight for civil rights were labeled communist activities. “Labor and civil rights workers came to understand they had to work together,” admitted Russell.

The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was significant in melding civil rights and labor rights issues. Russell recalled “the natural relationship between the NAACP and Sleeping Car Porters.” The bond between the two organizations “matured when A. Phillips Randolph organized the union. That was a natural coalition, and, certainly, much of the information about civil rights organizing was carried from town to town and state to state by the porters,” said Russell.

The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was a very public display of labor rights and civil rights working together. It is one of the most famous mass rights gatherings in history and is where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The United Auto Workers sent thousands of workers to the march and contributed funding. The UAW support had “a lot to do with the fact that A. Philip Randolph was on the executive committee of the AFL-CIO in those days,” Morial noted.

King’s connection with labor rights and civil rights continued through his fateful 1968 visit to Memphis to support Black sanitation workers who had complained of deadly and unfair work conditions and low wages.

King also long advocated for education as part of the civil rights movement.

Today, leaders like Becky Pringle, the president of the National Education Association, are stepping forward. “May Day is another day of action,” particularly on education issues that resulted from the civil rights movement like Title I, she said. “Historically, the establishment of the major programs for the Department of Education came from the civil rights movement.”

Title I addresses the needs of low-income students by bridging gaps so that all students have access to education regardless of race, where they live, or their ability. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which ensures students with disabilities are not denied the resources they need for learning or physical disability, also stems from the civil rights movement.

“This bond was forged in the crucible of injustice and strengthened by a shared demand for dignity, fair wages, and human rights.” Russell said. “We honor that legacy—from the courage of the meatpackers in the tragic loss of Emmett Till, from labor strikes to the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.”

As for today's rallies, “we continue that journey together, standing in unwavering solidarity to ensure justice, opportunity, and equity for all workers in every community,” Russell said.

April Ryan is the Washington bureau chief and senior White House correspondent for BlackPressUSA. Ryan is the longest-serving Black woman reporter in the White House press corps and has served on the board of the prestigious White House Correspondents' Association for 25 years. She is the author of “Black Women Will Save the World,” “The Presidency in Black and White: My Up-Close View of Three Presidents and Race in America,” “Under Fire: Reporting from the Front Lines of the Trump White House” and “At Mama's Knee: Mothers and Race in Black and White.”

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