The National Afro-American Labor Council

By the late 1950's, the Civil Rights movement in the United States was in full bloom. The Supreme Court decision in the case of Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954 and the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1956 had led to the emergence of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a new charismatic leader and to a new awareness of the effectiveness of protest politics in the black community. A militant grass-roots campaign led by established black organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Congress of Racial Equality and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) spread throughout the country in order to eradicate discrimination and segregation in American society.

Industry and “Jim Crow” unions, however, continued to deny fair employment opportunities to black workers, in spite of an alliance between black leaders and the national labor unions in the Civil Rights movement. In 1959 A. Philip Randolph, vice-president of the AFL-CIO and president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, felt that labor was not moving fast and effectively enough to address the grievances of black workers. Pointing to what he called a “moral revolution” among black workers--a spontaneous surge forward to gain full social and economic status in labor and industry--Randolph called for a conference of seventy-five black trade-unions leaders in July 1959 to “consider the problems confronting the 1,500,000 negroes who are members of organized labor.” The founding convention of the Negro American Labor Council (the name of the organization was changed in 1968) was held May 27-29, 1960 in Detroit.

According to the NALC constitution, the purpose of the organization was to seek equality of opportunity in industry and to remove discrimination in trade-unions, as well as to serve as a clearing house for black grievances and interests within the AFL-CIO. The NALC initiated and participated with the SCLC, the NAACP and the Student Non-Violent Coordination Committee in the 1963 March on Washington. It can also be credited with the adoption of better racial trade-union practices within the AFL-CIO. In February 1961, the organization held a Workshop and Institute on Racial Bias in Trade-Unions, Industry and Government in Washington D.C., which was co-sponsored and attended by prominent personalities such as Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of the NAACP and Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. In addition, the NALC organized various economic conferences throughout its history.

During its existence the NALC claimed a membership of over 10,000 nationally, and a network of over thirty chapters across the country. A. Philip Randolph, a founding member of the NALC, served as its president from 1960 until 1966. He was succeeded by Cleveland Robinson, president of the Distributive Workers of America, and in 1974 by Richard Parrish, founding member and treasurer from its inception. Other leading members of the NALC included L. Joseph Overton, 1960-1970, Joseph R. Brown, treasurer since 1974, Lola Belle Holmes, Oliver Montgomery, Willoughby Abner and Joseph A. Beavers. The NALC ceased its operations in 1976.