Bill Lucy on Black power

William Lucy – an icon of the labor movement -- died this past Wednesday at the age of 90. “Bill Lucy served as a brilliant strategist whose words instantly cut to the heart of an issue,” said AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler, who called Lucy “a bridge across generations of our movement; and a leader in connecting the fights of working people all across the world.”

As Shuler noted, when Lucy was just 34 years old, “he wrote four simple words—'I Am a Man’—that would change the course of history in Memphis, Tennessee,” helping “all Americans see the humanity of Black sanitation workers in their struggle for dignity and respect on the job.”

Bill Lucy also co-founded the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, and it’s that aspect of his extraordinary career that we’re going to explore on today’s show.

In January 2021, Lucy talked with the Black Work Talk podcast about the relationship between Black unionists, the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, and the labor movement during the 60s and 70s.
Labor Movement Celebrates Extraordinary Life and Career of Bill Lucy
“Tired of Going to Funerals”: The 1972 National Black Political Convention in Gary

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Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.

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