A. Philip Randolph, Esther Peterson, & Cesar Chavez

The Changing Face of Labor in America

1963-1979

George Meany Memorial Archives, Portrait Collection, Box 18, Folder 97

A. Philip Randolph Speaking at Negro Labor Committee, 1935

A. Philip Randolph (1889-1979)• President, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters• Proposed a “March on Washington” 1941• AFL-CIO Executive Council & a Vice-President 1955

George Meany memorial Archives, Portrait Collection, Box 18, Folder 97, Neg. # 365

Randolph on 80th Birthday Receives Gift from Roy Wilkins, NAACP, and Congratulations from George Meany, April 15, 1969

“Salvation for a race, nation or class, must come from within. Freedom is never granted it is won. Justice is never given; it is exacted.”A. Philip Randolph

Esther Peterson, Assistant Secretary of Labor Listens at a Conference on Enforcement of the Law Granting Equal Pay for Men and Women Doing the Same Work, June 1964

George Meany Memorial Archives, Portrait Collection, Box 17, Folder 42

Esther Peterson (1906-1998)

• Labor Organizer• Labor Educator• Labor Lobbyist• Government Official

George Meany Memorial Archives, Portrait Collection, Box 17, Folder 42

Peterson presented an award by Benjamin McLaurin, vice-President of the Sleeping Car Porters, November 1966

“We wanted equality for women, but we wanted bread for our low-income sisters first. Only after basic protection such as equal pay and federal wage and hours laws were in place, were we willing to consider the Equal Rights Amendment.”--Esther Peterson

Cesar Chavez, United Farm Workers Organizing Committee, signs a contract for migrant workers, 1966

George Meany Memorial Archives, Portrait Files, Box 38, Folder5, Neg. # 1075

Cesar Chavez(1927-1993)

Farm Workers’ Symbol: a red flag with a black eagle

La Huelga = the Strike

Grape Boycott and 300-mile march Delano to Sacramento, California

George Meany memorial Archives, Portrait Files, Box 38, Folder 5

Chavez receives an AFL-CIO Charter from George Meany while Monsignor

George Higgins views the document, 1974

“I felt then, as I do now, that organized labor in the United States has much to learn from the creative leadership of Chavez and the example of dedication and solidarity offered by farm workers.”--Msgr. George Higgins, Organized Labor and the Church, 1993, p. 103.