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Black History Month Profiles: Lottie Rollin

South Carolina Women magazine

For Black History Month, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various African American leaders and activists who have worked at the intersection of civil and labor rights, with a particular focus on voting rights. Without access to the ballot box and an assurance that everyone's vote counts, civil and labor rights are among the first to be taken away from working people. Today, we're looking at Lottie Rollin.

Charlotte "Lottie" Rollin was born in 1849, the second of five African American sisters born to a free black family in South Carolina. While older sister Frances would be more well-known and all five sisters were activists, Lottie would have a special focus on voting rights. 

Lottie followed Frances into activism after the family moved to Columbia. In March 1869, she argued for women's suffrage before the state legislature, becoming one of the first African American women to formally speak to a state government in the South after the Civil War. The next year she organized a "Women's Rights Convention." She chaired the event and her sister...

Black History Month Profiles: Rev. George W. Lee

Wikimedia Commons

For Black History Month, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various African American leaders and activists who have worked at the intersection of civil and labor rights, with a particular focus on voting rights. Without access to the ballot box and an assurance that everyone's vote counts, civil and labor rights are among the first to be taken away from working people. Today, we're looking at the Rev. George W. Lee.

In 1955, the murder of Emmett Till shocked the United States and was a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement. But Till wasn't the only prominent murder of an African American in Mississippi that year and the murder of the Rev. George W. Lee not only informed the reaction to Till's murder, but Lee's murder was part of the pathway to the passage of the Voting Rights Act a decade later.

Lee lived in Humphreys County, which was only one county away from where Till was murdered later in the year. Before becoming an activist, Lee grew up in Edwards, Mississippi. His mother was an illiterate plantation woman who died when Lee was young. While...

The Trump Budget: The Other Shoe Drops

When Congress passed a $2 trillion tax cut for corporations and the wealthy in 2017, we warned that the obscene cost of this tax cut bill would be used as a pretext to cut programs that benefit working people.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka (UMWA) said at the time that the 2017 tax bill was:

Nothing but a con game, and working people are the ones they’re trying to con. Here we go again. First comes the promise that tax giveaways for the wealthy and big corporations will trickle down to the rest of us. Then comes the promise that tax cuts will pay for themselves. Then comes the promise that they want to stop offshoring. And finally, we find out that none of these things is true, and the people responsible for wasting trillions of dollars on tax giveaways to the rich tell us we have no choice but to cut Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, education and infrastructure. There always seems to be plenty of money for millionaires and big corporations but never enough money to do anything for working people.

Now those predictions are coming true, as President Trump has released his new budget...

Economy Gains 225,000 Jobs in January; Unemployment Unchanged at 3.6%

The U.S. economy gained 225,000 jobs in January, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 3.6%, according to figures released Friday morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

In response to the January job numbers, AFL-CIO Chief Economist William Spriggs tweeted:

Payroll employment +226,000 in January, @BLS_gov reports that their benchmark estimate for job gains in 2019 were revised downward by 12,000 from previous reports. There were also adjustments to the household survey effecting the counts of employed and work force size. @AFLCIO
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) February 7, 2020
 

Since last January, @BLS_gov reports wages were up 3.1% for all workers. This is modest for this point in a recovery with sustained low unemployment rates. @AFLCIO There is clear room for the @federalreserve to hold its policy as we remain far from indicators of escalating wages
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) February 7, 2020
 

Construction had continued gains, +44,000 for January, but manufacturing showed losses, led by a...