Found 5 collections related to Labor unions, Black

The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) organized railway porters (traditionally an occupation for African-Americans) to bargain with the Pullman Company which held a virtual monopoly on the nation's sleeping car facilities. The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters collection includes printed matter, correspondence, legal documents, addresses by A. Philip Randolph, and other material reflecting the activities of this union. less

Arthur L. Woolfolk was a railroad labor union leader. He was the 1st Vice President of the Atchison, Topeka, and Sante Fe System Local in 1956 and Local Chairman of Sante Fe System Local in 1967, both of Denver, Colorado. The Arthur L. Woolfolk papers contain original and mimeographed letters between local and national officers, special bulletins containing constitutional changes about membership dues and officer eligibility; report of Train and Chair Car Committee on reducing worker hours, increasing membership, job stability, and employee railroad pass rights; a call to the Fifth Triennial Convention in Chicago, Illinois in September 1965 from A. Philip Randolph, International President; and a copy of the proceedings of the Colorado State Legislature of March 31, 1949 regarding locomotive employee and passenger safety. less

Benjamin F. McLaurin (1906-1989) was a Black labor leader and civic worker who held leadership positions within the Brotherhood of the Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) during the 1920s and 1930s. He worked with A. Philip Randolph throughout the Civil Rights Movement, and later advocated for job equality and increased educational opportunities for minority communities while serving on New York City board committees. The collection, dated 1936 to 1989, showcases McLaurin's lifelong labor, civic, and political work through correspondence, project reports, meeting minutes, Senate committee statements and testimonies, convention and conference reports, and newspaper clippings. less

Ernest Thompson was a labor leader and one of the founders and the director of organization of the National Negro Labor Council. From 1951-1956, he was also the Fair Employment Practices Committee director for the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, a multiracial trade-union expelled from the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) on charges of communist infiltration. Thompson later became involved in efforts to gain African American political representation in Orange, New Jersey, improve education in the state, and eliminate segregation within the school system. The Ernest Thompson collection consists of printed matter and publications of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America on Blacks, women, urban renewal, and the labor movement in the 1950s. Additionally, there is printed material on the student movement of the 1960s, publications of communist youth organizations, and publications about segregation and discrimination in public schools in Orange, New Jersey, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. There is also a speech by Henry Winston about the founding of a Marxist-Leninist youth organization. less

Milton Price Webster joined the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) in 1925, and soon became A. Philip Randolph's major ally. He was the first vice-president of the BSCP and chief negotiator of contracts. Together with Randolph, Webster led the BSCP to victory in 1935, following a protracted campaign to make the union the bargaining representative for Black porters and maids. The BSCP was the first African American union to win a national contract as well as the first to have a bargaining agreement with the Pullman Company. Among the main issues Webster addressed as the chief negotiator was the Pullman Company's long-standing practice of low pay, long working hours, and harsh treatment of its porters, most of whom were African American. The Milton P. Webster collection includes a variety of material related to labor negotiations between the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and several national railroad companies. Items concern pay rates and increases, health and welfare benefits, and other labor issues involving porter-brakemen and chair car attendants. Materials include correspondence, memoranda of agreement, rosters of attendants and porters, bulletins, and membership lists. less