UNION MEMBERS AND ALLIES march down Tucker Blvd. during the CBTU-STL #LaborForBlackLives #Juneteenth National Day of Action on Friday, June, 19, 2020. – Bill Greenblatt/UPI photo
By TIM ROWDEN Editor
The Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU)-St. Louis Chapter observed Juneteenth, commemorating the official freeing of the last enslaved Black people in the United States following the Civil War, on Friday, June 19, 2020 with a Day of Action in downtown St. Louis.
Juneteenth is a day of profound meaning to Black workers, and should be for all working people who cherish and defend the freedom to live our own lives, speak with our own voices and enjoy the fruits of our labor.
This year in particular, with attention focus on the police killings of unarmed Black Americans, and the COVID-19 pandemic wreaking havoc on the economy, it was a day to call attention to the continuing economic disparity and exploitation that persist for Black Americans. With unemployment in America at record levels due to the pandemic, the official U.S. unemployment rate is 13.3 percent, but the Black unemployment rate is 16.8 percent, disproportionately impacting Black women.
For Labor, this troubled time in our nation is a time to reaffirm our understanding that an injury to one is an injury to all, that Black Lives Matter and to say out loud the names of those we have lost to racist violence.
UNION MEMBERS AND ALLIES march down Tucker Blvd. during the CBTU-STL #LaborForBlackLives #Juneteenth National Day of Action on Friday, June, 19, 2020. – Bill Greenblatt/UPI photo
THE STATUE OF DRED SCOTT and his wife Harriet Robinson Scott, stand outside of the Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis. Dred Scott was an enslaved African American man who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom and that of his wife and their two daughters in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case, which originally went to trial at the Old Courthouse in 1847. The Scotts originally won their freedom in 1850, but lost it again on appeal and were returned to slavery. With the support of abolitionists, Scotts appealed the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled against them. The Scott family was sold again, but were freed by their owner three months later. Dred Scott died from tuberculosis the next year. – Bill Greenblatt/UPI photo
JAY OZIER, president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) – St. Louis, speaks to Labor supporters outside the Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis on Juneteenth, June 19,2020. – Labor Tribune photo
JOHN BOWMAN, president of the St. Louis County Chapter NAACP and a UAW retiree, talks to union members and allies observing Juneteenth, the anniversary of the day the last African American slaves were freed in the United States in Galveston, Texas following the end of the Civil War. – Labor Tribune photo
ST. LOUIS CIRCUIT ATTORNEY Kim Gardner speaks of the need for social and systemic change to address racism outside the Old Courthouse during the CBTU-STL #LaborForBlackLives #Juneteenth National Day of Action on June 19, 2020. – Labor Tribune photo
LABORERS LOCAL 110 members hold a banner for the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement at the CBTU-St. Louis Chapter Day of Action outside the Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis on June 19, 2020. – Labor Tribune photo
UNION MEMBERS and their families show their support for Black Lives Matter at the Day of Action outside the Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis on June 19, 2020. – Labor Tribune photo
PAT WHITE, president of the St. Louis Labor Council, addresses union members outside the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department station on June 19, 2020 at the CBTU-STL #LaborForBlackLives #Juneteenth National Day of Action. – Gary Otten photo
LABOR UNION MEMBERS and allies (from left) Brian Stiens, of Glaziers Local 513; Jimmy Lappe, Missouri Jobs with Justice; Glenn Kage, president, UAW Local 2250; Richard Von Glahn, policy director, Missouri Jobs with Justice; and Kevin FitzGerald, Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1, show their support for the CBTU-STL #LaborForBlackLives #Juneteenth National Day of Action outside the Old Courthouse on Friday, June, 19, 2020. – Labor Tribune photo
