CBTU St. Louis Chapter celebrates Juneteenth with cleanup of MLK Drive
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CBTU ST. LOUIS CHAPTER President Emeritus Lew Moye (UAW retired) (from left), St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones, CBTU St. Louis President Jay Ozier (Carpenters Local 97 Retired) and Vice President Olúwadáminí Melvin (CWA 6355) posed for a quick photo before starting cleanup work. – CBTU St. Louis photo
The Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) hosted a Juneteenth Clean Sweep June 19 to rally and clean up trash and weeds on Dr. Martin Luther King Drive in north St. Louis.
Laborers Local 110’s newly elected Business Manager Ronny Griffin brought several members of his union to help with the effort, and they were joined by members of UNITE HERE Local 74, CWA 6355, State Sen. Karla May, St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones, St. Louis Labor Council President Pat White and many others to commemorate the date June 19, 1865, when after white Southerners extended the enslavement of countless Black people for more than two months after the end of the Civil War, Union troops arrived in Texas to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation signed by President Abraham Lincoln two years earlier.
“On Juneteenth, we honor those who came before us to fight for freedom and justice in the face of blatant oppression,” said Jones, the city’s first Black woman mayor, who declared Juneteenth a holiday in the city earlier this month. “We acknowledge them while recommitting ourselves to build a country in which you can succeed and thrive – no matter the color of your skin.”
President Joe Biden signed a bill declaring Juneteenth a national holiday last week.
DOZENS OF UNION MEMBERS turned out to help with the Clean Sweep cleanup effort on Martin Luther King Drive – Labor Tribune photo‘I’M GRATEFUL FOR ALL OF YOU coming out today to support us in this cleanup of Martin Luther King Ave. to honor our ancestors and look forward to our future,” Ozier said. “With no history, there’s no future. If you don’t know where we’ve been, it’s difficult to determine where we go.” – Labor Tribune photo‘IT’S TAKEN LABOR A LONG TIME to inject this in our Movement,” St. Louis Labor Council President Pat White said at last weekend’s Juneteenth event. “Although we’ve come a long way with our Building Union Diversity (BUD) program and the Labor Council’s Diversity Committee, we have miles to go. We need our folks to realize how important it is to have inclusion and equity in our unions.” – Labor Tribune photo
DOZENS OF UNION MEMBERS turned out for the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) St. Louis Chapter’s Clean Sweep of Martin Luther King Dr. in St. Louis on Juneteenth to commemorate the date June 19, 1865, the day the last enslaved Black people in the United States were freed by Union troops arriving in Galveston, Texas, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones declared Juneteenth a holiday in the city earlier this month. President Joe Biden signed a bill making Juneteenth a national holiday last week. – CBTU St. Louis Chapter photos
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