# data[].attributes.body
National Museum of African American History & Culture digital toolkit

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
National Museum of African American History and Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Carter G. Woodson developed the idea for Negro History Week to promote the history, culture, and achievements of African Americans and other people of color worldwide.

# data[].attributes.body
Video on Black labor from slavery to modern day (16 minutes)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Black Workers Fought for Economic Justice Against All Odds

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Racial justice and economic justice are intrinsically intertwined. However, far too often in our nation's history, those who benefit from the existing order have used race and class to divide us. These five Black leaders strengthened both the labor and civil rights movements by fighting discrimination in unions and building strong coalitions for the welfare of all.

Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955)

Born during Reconstruction to parents who had been enslaved, Mary McLeod Bethune grew up walking five miles to a Presbyterian mission school where a teacher noticed her dedication and recommended her for a college scholarship-setting Bethune on a path to change her career and the world.

In 1904, with $1.50 and five young students, the now-legendary Mary McLeod Bethune started a school for Black girls in Florida that became today's Bethune-Cookman University. Two decades later, Bethune was elected as the first woman president of the National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools (NATCS), later renamed the American Teachers Association (ATA), which would eventually merge with the National Education Association to become the union we know today.

After serving as the NATCS president, Bethune would be appointed director of African American Affairs by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and later founded the National Council of Negro Women. Throughout her life, Mary McLeod Bethune broke through boundaries and used her platform to advocate for Black and women workers.

"I leave you a thirst for education. I leave you a respect for the use of power. I leave you faith. I leave you racial dignity. I leave you a desire to live harmoniously with your fellow men. I leave you, finally, a responsibility to our young people.

― Mary McLeod Bethune

A. Philip Randolph (1889-1979)

A. Philip Randolph was born in the late 1800s in Crescent City, Florida. He and his older brother attended Cookman Institute; an all-Black institution of higher education now known as Bethune-Cookman University. After graduation, he became involved in the movement for Black economic and social freedom in Harlem, New York.

In the summer of 1925, Randolph met with porters from the Chicago-based Pullman Palace Car Company. The mostly Black Pullman workforce were paid lower wages than white railway workers and faced harsh conditions and long working hours. Over the next ten years, Randolph worked with these workers to form and organize the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. When the union was finally recognized in 1937 it became the first predominately Black labor union in the nation.

Throughout the next forty years, Randolph continued to be a pioneer for the connected causes of racial and economic justice. During World War II, Randolph helped lead the fight to end discrimination in the defense industry and military, paving the way for Executive Order 8802, the Fair Employment Practices Commission, and the desegregation of the armed services. In the 1950s, Randolph served as one of the first two Black vice presidents of the new AFL-CIO and founded the Negro American Labor Council (NALC). Randolph was also one of the major organizers of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, bringing together nearly 250,000 people to demand freedom and better lives through greater civil rights.

"Freedom is never granted: It is won. Justice is never given: It is exacted. Freedom and justice must be struggled for by the oppressed of all lands and races."

- A. Philip Randolph

Bayard Rustin (1912-1987)

Bayard Rustin was born into a family of Quakers and activists in Pennsylvania. Growing up, his grandmother, Julia Rustin, was involved with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and his home was visited by Black leaders including W.E.B. Du Bois and Mary McLeod Bethune. He carried this upbringing with him, dedicating his life to the philosophy of nonviolence and the fight for human rights.

Rustin saw the interconnection between global struggles for racial, economic, and social justice. He played pivotal roles in the major movements of the second half of the 20th century, from co-founding the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), combatting colonialism in India, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa, working for nuclear disarmament, leading the 1963 March on Washington, advocating for LGBTQ+ rights, organizing for worker empowerment, and demanding greater HIV/AIDS education. As a gay, Black man, Rustin was often pushed behind the scenes of these movements, his role in history too often forgotten.

As a member of the executive council of the AFL-CIO and a founder of the AFL-CIO's A. Philip Randolph Institute, Rustin fought against racism and discrimination in the labor movement. His leadership in these organizations focused on building diverse coalitions for the benefit of all humankind.

"We are all one. And if we don't know it, we will learn it the hard way."

-Bayard Rustin

Hattie Canty (1933-2012)

Hattie Canty was born near Mobile, Alabama, in 1933. When she moved with her family to Las Vegas in 1972, she felt that the labor movement continued the struggle for racial justice she had seen in Alabama, noting that the two were intrinsically linked.

In Nevada, Canty began working several jobs as a maid, a school janitor, and eventually a room attendant on the Las Vegas Strip. She became active in her union, was elected to the executive board of the Culinary Workers Union in 1984, and became union president in 1990. She was the first Black woman and the first room attendant elected to this position in CWU.

During her tenure, she brought together workers from 84 nations, helped push forward racial justice within the industry and her union, and founded the Culinary Training Academy, which helps people of color obtain better jobs in the hospitality industry. In addition, Canty served as president of the CWU during the longest strike in U.S. labor history, leading the workers at the Frontier Hotel through six and a half years of negotiations for better labor standards.

"Anytime I fight for anything in this labor movement, it benefits me in the civil rights movement."

- Hattie Canty

Chris Smalls (1988- )

Chris Smalls is a leader shaping the direction of the labor movement today. Born in New Jersey in 1988, he felt alienated from union establishments of the day, with his mother often forgetting she was a part of a union herself. It wasn't until he started organizing his coworkers at Amazon that he saw how unions could be a vital vehicle for winning workers' rights.

Smalls started working at Amazon, optimistic about his path for development. However, over his years as an employee, he experienced grueling work expectations and saw institutionalized racism stop him and others from career growth. The tipping point was Amazon's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, when it was clear his employers prioritized profit over the lives and wellbeing of him and his colleagues.

In March 2020, Smalls and his colleague Derrick Palmer began leading actions for Amazon worker rights. In April 2021, they began to call themselves the Amazon Labor Union (ALU). Even at that time, most of the country thought that unionizing Amazon staff was an impossible task. On April 1, 2022, the ALU proved doubters wrong - the workforce at the Amazon Staten Island warehouse JFK8 voted to establish a union. While this is just the beginning for Smalls and the ALU, this success is part of a new wave of union activism, pulling modern organizing tactics into the long legacy of fighting for labor rights.

"We don't need millions of dollars. We just need the peoples' power and the power of the community behind us."

- Chris Smalls

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
5 Black Leaders that Shaped the Labor Movement | NEA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
These Black leaders had strong visions for the future of the labor movement, uniting broad coalitions for racial justice, worker rights, and the welfare of all.

# data[].attributes.body
Oakland African American Museum & Library visual display of African American's legacy at Children's Fairyland and other contributions to the making of the east bay.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Oakland History is Black History at Children’s Fairyland

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Children’s Fairyland is celebrating Black History Month with a spectacular visual display highlighting important people, time periods,…

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In 1926, Harvard PhD. and historian, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, initiated Negro History Week across the United States. Woodson had founded what is now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASAALH), to promote the study of African American history and address the erasure of African Americans from history textbooks and other sources. What began as a time of learning during the week in which President Lincoln and Frederick Douglass' birthdays fell, has become Black History Month, first designated by President Gerald Ford in 1976, the U.S. bicentennial year. Now, each year, the ASAALH issues the theme for the Black History Month, and the office of the President issues a national decree with the theme. Fittingly for an election cycle, this year's Black History Month theme is "African Americans and the Vote."

Since the inception of Black History Month, Californians eagerly generated opportunities for students and their fellow citizens to learn about African American history; they understood that black people had contributed to the state's growth and development and participated in historical events of importance. In 1919, Oakland journalist, Delilah Beasley, published her seminal book, Negro Trailblazers of California, in which she interviewed and documented hundreds of pioneers. The California Federation of Colored Women's Clubs offered regular lectures on black history during its heyday in the Progressive Era 1920s. African American churches were home to commemorations of Negro History Week in the 1930s. In 1945, the city of Los Angeles launched Negro History Week activities under the aegis of the Our Author's Study Club. And, in the Bay Area and around the state, local groups sprung up, inspired by Carter Woodson's efforts.

Cognizant that - even with the efforts of earlier generations - much of the state's African American history has been overlooked or suppressed, the California Historical Society is marking Black History Month through several public history programs. We invite you to partake and participate.
Gold Chains: The Hidden History of Slavery in California
The ACLU of Northern California in collaboration with radio station KQED, the California Historical Society and the Equal Justice Society co-created an educational project directed at highlighting the stories of slavery throughout California. "Gold Chains: The Hidden History of Slavery in California" includes 14 essays, one video and three audio stories that present the experiences of African Americans and Native Californians during the 1800s. The "Gold Chains" website includes numerous stories that spotlight the lives of slaves in California, Black abolitionists, the relationship between slavery and the California Gold Rush, discriminatory laws, and more. Explore the site here.
Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era, Book Talk with Alison Jefferson Tuesday, February 11, 6:00 p.m., Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Public Library main branch
In partnership with the African American Center of the San Francisco Public Library, the California Historical Society presents a book talk and signing with historian, Alison Jefferson. Dr. Jefferson will discuss her new book, Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era which explores how, as Southern California was reimagining leisure and positioning it at the center of the American Dream, African American Californians were working to make that leisure an open, inclusive reality. By occupying recreational sites and public spaces, African Americans challenged racial hierarchies and marked a space of black identity on the regional landscape and social space - creating black-owned resorts, communities, businesses, and recreational culture that drew vacationers and participants from Northern California and around the state. Learn more about the program here.
In the Library: Hidden Histories of African Americans in the Bay Area, Exhibition and Talk by Susan Anderson Tuesday, February 18, 6:00 p.m., North Baker Library, California Historical Society
Join us for a special one-night only exhibition of rare materials from the CHS collections, accompanied by an engaging talk by CHS Director of Public Programs, Susan Anderson, who with CHS Reference Librarian, Frances Kaplan, curated the display of these archival materials to help reveal the hidden history of multicultural California's 19th century African American past. Anderson's talk will begin with the Gold Rush and weave California's raucous beginnings into the national narrative - in which African Americans around the country, including famous abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, debated in newspapers and conventions the meaning of the Gold Rush for black America at the time. The photographs, manuscripts, publications, and documents discussed and exhibited in this presentation will allow visitors to experience the urgency of early campaigns for civil rights and the fervent hopes of the largely sophisticated African American community in Northern California. Learn about the beloved ship's captain known as "The Black Ahab" who has a street named for him in West Oakland. Hear a Civil War poem by a distinguished black poet and friend of John Brown that was proclaimed in public in San Francisco in 1864. See court documents recording the lawsuit of a woman who successfully challenged discrimination on streetcars 90 years before Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This In the Library presentation proves that California's history is much more challenging, complicated, and fascinating than we've been taught. Learn more about the program here.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Black History Month: Revealing California's Hidden African American History - California Historical Society

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In 1926, Harvard PhD. and historian, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, initiated Negro History Week across the United States. Woodson had founded what is now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASAALH), to promote the study

# data[].attributes.body
Northwest African American Museum programming (Seattle)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Discover all the activites NAAM is doing to celebrate Black History Month

# data[].attributes.body
Theme for Black History Month 2025- Executive Summary

# data[].attributes.body
The Association for the Study of African American Life and History

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
ASALH | The Founders of Black History Month (est. 1915)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Established on September 9, 1915 by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, we are the Founders of Black History Month and carry forth the work of our founder, the Father of Black History.

We continue his legacy of speaking a fundamental truth to the world-that Africans and peoples of African descent are makers of history and co-workers in what W. E. B. Du Bois called, "The Kingdom of Culture." ASALH's mission is to create and disseminate knowledge about Black History, to be, in short, the nexus between the Ivory Tower and the global public. We labor in the service of Blacks and all humanity.

The vision of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History is to be the premier Black Heritage learned society with a strong network of national and international branches and partners whose diverse and inclusive membership will continue the Woodson legacy.

The mission of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH®) is to promote, research, preserve, interpret and disseminate information about Black life, history and culture to the global community.

The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH®) is head-quartered in Washington, D.C., temporarily 301 Rhode Island Ave, NW in Washington, DC. The Association operates as local, state, and international branches promoting greater knowledge of African American history through a program of education, research, and publishing.

The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) is committed to providing a harassment-free space for its members and others who attend, participate in, and support ASALH-sponsored conferences, programs. meetings and activities. Click here to read the full Anti-Harassment Policy.

Sets the annual theme for Black History Month. Establish Annual Black History Theme

Publish Annual Black History Theme Learning Resource Package

Sponsor annual Black History Kick-Off Events

Host Annual Convention and Black History Month Luncheon

Establish, nurture and grow ASALH Branches, including campus-based branches & youth guilds.

Manage professional Speaker's Bureau

Establish national and local Partnerships

Host Essay Contest for undergraduate and graduate students

Promote oral, public and local history projects

Commemorate the birth of our founder, Dr. Carter G. Woodson

The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (EIN: 53-0219640) is a tax-exempt 501 (c)(3) organization. Contributions to ASALH are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
ASALH - The Founders of Black History Month | About Us

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
lt;span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start">﻿</span>&amp;amp;amp;lt;span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"&amp;amp;amp;gt;﻿&amp;amp;amp;lt;/span&amp;amp;amp;gt; Established on September 9, 1915 by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, we are the Founders of Black History Month and carry forth the work of our founder, the Father of Black History.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching Histories of Black Americans During World War II with The New York Public Library | The New York Public Library

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore primary source resources available through NYPL that shed light on the experiences of Black Americans during World War II. 