IN THE NEWS
NBC News 9/7/15
Editorial: The New Face of Labor, Civil Rights is Black & Female
From Black Lives Matter and Fight for $15 to North Carolina’s Forward Together Moral Movement, black women are leading and playing significant roles in shaping the direction of groundbreaking efforts to reform policing and our criminal justice system, raise the minimum wage and ward off right-wing attacks on the Voting Rights Act and our fragile social safety net.
Jezebel 9/7/15
Black Women Are Driving the Rebirth of the Labor Movement
While Labor Day is traditionally an excellent time to eat 15 hot dogs, try to swim in a lake, then cry because your cramps are too intense, it’s also a fine day to consider who’s revitalizing the American labor movement. Women, particularly black women, now make up the majority of newly organized workers and are leading prominent labor struggles like Fight for $15.
PBS: To The Contrary 9/4/15
Black Women & Unions
The book “And Still I Rise” chronicles struggles and triumphs. PANEL: Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Patricia Sosa, Darlene Kennedy, Francesca Chambers.
People’s World 9/4/15
Report explores why unions have few female leaders
Why do unions have so few female leaders? On the face of the facts, that doesn’t make sense. After all, 45.5 percent of unionists are women.
The American Prospect 8/2/15
The Inclusive Strength of #BlackLivesMatter
Why the fast-growing movement has been intertwined with labor, economic justice, immigration, and LGBT rights from the beginning.
Ebony 7/28/15
Tryin’ to Make a Dollar Out of 64 Cents
On Black Women’s Pay Equity Day, experts weigh in on stemming the tide of income inequality for African-American women.
Women’s eNews 6/26/15
Black Women Hailed as Labor’s Untapped Leaders
When women of color take the lead in organizing co-workers into labor unions, they are extremely successful, a 2007 study found. A new “love letter” to black women picks up on that data and urges that they rise in the labor’s ranks to benefit all U.S. workers.
The Clarion-Ledger 6/9/15
Mississippi organizer pitches need for unions
Unions are widely mistrusted in the South, but black women, particularly in Mississippi, need to organize to improve working conditions and close pay gaps, a Mississippi labor leader said Tuesday.
National Journal 6/5/15
Black Workers Could Save Dying Unions
As the country added 280,000 jobs in May, unemployment remained unchanged this month, though it was down almost a full point since last year. Overall, black workers had seen consecutive months of falling unemployment, dropping to 9.6 percent last month, the lowest since the recovery. But May ruined that with a 10.2 showing for the group (compared to 4.1 for Asians, 4.7 for whites, and 6.7 for Latinos.
Next City 6/4/15
Let’s Give Black Women the Megaphones in the Labor Movement
Look at photos from any of the “Fight for $15” protests around the U.S. and chances are, you’ll see women of color — black women in particular — on the front lines of the campaign for a higher minimum wage. And it makes sense: Black women take home 64 cents for every dollar earned by white men.
Institute for Policy Studies 5/13/15
State of Black Workers in America
The Black Worker Initiative, along with the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University, the Discount Foundation, and Neighborhood Funders Group, hosted the State of Black Workers in America conference at Columbia University.
In These Times 5/12/15
Union and Nonprofit Leaders: Labor Should Shift Its Focus to Organizing Black Workers
In 1956, as Martin Luther King Jr. and Bayard Rustin struggled to sustain the historic boycott of segregated public transit in Montgomery, Alabama, Rustin turned to the union leader A. Phillip Randolph for advice.
Buzzfeed News 5/10/15
Labor Movement Pushes, Yet Again, To Get More Black Women In Charge
Despite being highly effective organizers, black women are underrepresented in leadership positions, a new report finds. Union leaders say, as they have for decades, that things are changing.
RH Reality Check 5/8/15
The Quality of Black Lives Matters Too
#BlackSpring is here: the uprisings happening in cities nationwide as part of a collective fight for racial justice in all areas of Black lives.
The Nation 5/1/15
Why Aren’t More Union Bosses Black Women?
A new report out today asks why black women—who are overrepresented in low-wage sectors of the economy that have produced recent organizing successes, including in retail and fast food—aren’t a stronger presence in labor movement leadership.
The Root 5/1/15
How Black Women Can Rescue the Labor Movement
A new report detailing a survey of black women provides important insights that could help improve conditions for all workers. But will the labor movement listen?
Madame Noire 5/1/15
Why Black Women Should Get Involved In The Labor Movement
A new study entitled “And Still I Rise: Black Women Labor Leaders’ Voices, Power and Promise”—named for a Maya Angelou poem—examines the reasons why the organizing success of Black women not resulted in more Black women having leadership positions that help push the labor movement forward.
Nerding Out 4/30/15
The state of black workers in America
Marc D. Bayard, Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, and Sean Thomas-Breitfeld, Co-Director of the Building Movement Project, join Dorian Warren to discuss the state of black workers in America.
Events
October 2015
Discussion and book signing
With Premilla Nadasen, author of How Workers Unite: The Untold Story of African American Women Who Built a Movement
Busboys n’ Poets
Washington, DC
September 2015
Briefing for Department of Labor leaders and staff
Washington, DC
August 2015
Plenary presentation at the A. Philip Randolph Institute convention
Savannah, GA
August 2015
Briefing for SEIU international leadership and staff
Washington, DC
July 2015
Workshop at the Movement for Black Lives Convening
Cleveland, OH
June 26, 2015
And Still I Rise: The Power of Black Workers
AFL-CIO
815 16th Street NW
Washington, DC 20006
Watch Richard Trumka’s speech
June 9, 2015
Briefing: Black Working Women Matter
Rayburn House Office Building 2167
200 D Street SW
Washington, DC 20024
Learn more
May 1, 2015
State of Black Workers in America Conference
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
3rd Floor Lecture Hall
2950 Broadway (at 116th Street)
New York, NY 10027
Program
