The focus of Black History Month this year is Black Health and Wellness which calls for workplaces to prioritize the health and safety of Black employees. Workplace health and safety conditions have been an issue that has resonated with the Black community and something that Black Americans have fought for since long before our time. 

Black History Month is an important time to celebrate the achievements and triumphs of the Black community both in the history and the present of this country. In particular, Black American activists in the Labor Movement have paved the way for working Americans today. Martin Luther King Jr. famously fought for Civil and Labor Rights – he spent his last days fighting for workers’ rights which produced his legendary “I’ve Been to the Mountain Top” speech. Along with the famous Martin Luther King Jr., there was also an unsung force of Black women activists in the Labor Movement. Their goal was to improve wages, hours, and working conditions within workplaces across the country.  Black women were the backbone of the Labor Movement, yet they often went unnoticed. Labor inequities still exist today for Black Women. For instance, Black women are overrepresented in low wage jobs, disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, and have the highest participation rate in the labor force yet are the most negatively impacted by the wage gap. 

The workplace environment in this country still has a long way to go to dismantle issues such as unfair wages, discrimination, harassment, and bias. The good news is that we have a movement and a legacy to be inspired by, thanks to the Black women activists who paved the way. 

5 unsung Black women activists you should know about

Coretta Scott King (1927-2006)

“I am made to sound like an attachment to a vacuum cleaner,” a friend recalled Scott King saying. “The wife of Martin, then the widow of Martin, all of which I was proud to be. But I was never just a wife, nor a widow. I was always more than a label.”

Although Coretta Scott King was famously known as the wife to Martin Luther King Jr, she was much more than that. Scott King symbolizes the Black women activists who led the Civil Rights and Labor Movement and often went unrecognized, hidden in plain sight. Scott King was passionate about fighting for and unionizing hospital workers because she believed they were performing the most difficult work and were being underpaid, an issue that still resonates today.

Scott King later founded the King Center, an organization that helps preserve her husband’s legacy. Her hard work and dedication eventually transpired to Martin Luther King Jr. Day becoming a federal holiday.

Nannie Helen Burroughs (1879-1961)

Nannie Helen Burroughs was an activist, suffragist, organizer and mentor of Martin Luther King Jr. In 1921, Burroughs organized the National Association of Wage Earners (NAWE), an important Black women’s labor organization. Burroughs created a national agenda to integrate comprehensive labor reform into the movement for voting rights. Burroughs also organized the National Trade School for Women and Girls (NTS) and co-founded the  National League of Republican Colored Women (NLRCW). During her tenure as president of the NTS, she established many programs to improve working conditions for domestic workers and to create new career opportunities for Black women. The purpose of the NLRCW was to collect and expose data about voter suppression and to inspire Black women to vote. Burroughs’ initiatives to document systemic inequalities eventually became of interest to the White House and she was appointed to be the chairman of the Committee on Negro Housing in 1931 by President Hoover.

Lucy Parsons (1851-1942) 

Lucy Parsons was a leading activist and anarchist in the labor movement who co-founded three radical labor movements in Chicago. Lucy Parsons married her husband, Albert Parsons, a white Reconstructionist dedicated to registering Black voters. The couple was forced to flee to Chicago from Texas due to the rise of the Klan and danger posed by those who were against their interracial marriage. In Chicago, they joined the Knights of Labor where they founded the International Working People’s Association. Lucy Parsons held many secret meetings with garment workers where she ran a dressmaking shop. She also wrote for the Working Womens’ Union to expose the horrors of factory life and the oppression that women faced as servants. ​​Lucy rose to fame when she embarked on a speaking tour in order to raise money for her husband who was one of nine men unjustly tried and sentenced to be executed for “speaking in such a way as to inspire the bomber to violence” following the Haymarket Square Bombing which killed a policeman. Albert and three other anarchists were executed and Lucy dedicated the rest of her life fighting for workers’ rights. In 1886, Lucy led Chicago’s first May Day Parade, a movement for an eight hour working day. 

Sylvia Woods (1909-1989)

Sylvia Woods was a laundry worker turned union activist who participated in one of the first sit-down protests of the Depression era and was active in the labor movement throughout most of her life. Woods initiated her first protest when she was only ten years old when she realized that her and her siblings weren’t allowed on the swings at the park because they were Black. As a result, she refused to sing the Star Spangled Banner at school. When she was called into the principal’s office, she explained, “Because it says 'The land of the free and the home of the brave' and this is not the land of the free.” Her activism continued throughout her life as she later organized the Laundry Workers Union. Woods later worked at Bendix Aviation in WWII and  led the local United Auto Workers union. She adopted a resolution that prohibited discrimination based on sex. 

Dora Lee Jones 

Dora Lee Jones was an activist who helped form and establish the Domestic Workers Union in Harlem, 1934. This organization was believed to be a stepping stone to ending domestic slavery. The group began with people from Finland and African-Americans in California, who were dedicated to the fight against the exploitation of Black domestic workers. Members of the union sent out letters to the ministers of African American churches urging them to show women the power that they had by not accepting the low wages that their employers were giving them. The union that started in New York inspired the creation of other unions across the states and later it became associated with the American Federation of Labor. Jones’ actions helped domestic workers receive the same minimum wage and other benefits that they were entitled to.