On this day in Labor History the year was 1937.
That was the year that 400 black women who worked as tobacco stemmers walked off the job at I.N. Vaughn and Company in Richmond, VA.
The tobacco industry in the south was highly segregated. The stemmers had to separate the tobacco leaves from the stems by hand.
The job paid little with working conditions that were extremely hot, cramped and demanded long hours.
Most of the stemmers were black women. The women found an ally in a new Richmond organization the Southern Negro Youth Congress.
The group was made up of young people who were part of the National Negro Congress, a national organization formed in 1935 to fight discrimination.
According to historian Erik Gellman, the National Negro Congress held the "belief that justice came from economic power."
They emphasized union organizing of black workers. In Richmond, the young organizers of the SNYC began to make contacts with the tobacco stemmers.
Out of that effort the Tobacco Stemmers Laborers and Industrial Union was forged.
Two organizers, Christopher Columbus Alston and James Jackson helped to lead the work with the stemmers.
For many reasons this unionization effort was indeed remarkable.
For one, in the Jim Crow south, it was not expected that black women would organize to form a union.
Richmond was also not a town known to be friendly to labor organization. But despite these challenges, the women compiled a list of demands and presented them to management.
Within 48 hours they had settled the strike, gaining improvements in their working conditions.
The women inspired others in Richmond, in Virginia and beyond.
Their fight was not just for better work places or higher wages, but was also for dignity and respect
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Labor History in 2:00 brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and The Rick Smith Show