Today in Labor History

March 03   -- SOURCE: Union Communications Services, Inc.

Birth date in Coshocton, Ohio, of William Green, a coal miner who was to succeed Samuel Gompers as president of the American Federation of Labor, serving in the role from 1924 to 1952. He held the post until his death, to be succeeded by George Meany - 1873

The local lumber workers' union in Humboldt County, Calif., founded the Union Labor Hospital Association to establish a hospital for union workers in the county. The hospital became an important community facility that was financed and run by the local labor movement - 1906

Congress approves the Seamen’s Act, providing the merchant marine with rights similar to those gained by factory workers. Action on the law was prompted by the sinking of the Titanic three years earlier. Among other gains: working hours were limited to 56 per week; guaranteed minimum standards of cleanliness and safety were put in place - 1915

The Davis-Bacon Act took effect today. It orders contractors on federally financed or assisted construction projects to pay wage rates equal to those prevailing in local construction trades - 1931

Working Class Heroes shared Zinn Education Project's album.

Via Zinn Education Project ~De

 

Freedmen's Bureau and Reconstruction (10 photos)

 

During hundreds of years of enslavement, most enslaved African Americans risked brutal punishment for literacy. After Emancipation, education was a number one priority for freed people. Some wanted to read the Bible; others wanted the skills to read land titles, figure out wages, and advance themselves in the new world of freedom. This 1866 Harper's Weekly engraving shows one of the many schools organized and run by African Americans. Francis Cardozo, an educational leader who returned South after the Civil War, was the director of the American Missionary Association's Zion school in Charleston, South Carolina, with more than 1,000 pupils. "It is a peculiarity of this school," ran the accompanying caption, "that it is entirely under the superintendence of colored teachers." From: http://herb.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/1220 Source: Alfred R. Waud, "Zion School for Colored Children, Charleston, South Carolina," wood engraving, Harper's Weekly, 15 December 1866