Building One Ohio Labor/Civil Rights Forum: Restoring the Historic and Powerful Alliance of Labor and Civil Rights for Racial Justice and Economic Opportunity

The Forum was attended by over 120 prominent labor and Civil Rights leaders from building trade, manufacturing, public sector, and service unions across the state. Moderators were myself and Pierette Talley, Vice-President, Ohio AFL-CIO. Keynote speakers included Clayola Brown, President, A. Philip Randolph Institute; David Rusk, internationally-known expert in urban and regional policy; and Marc Bayard, Director of the Institute for Policy Studies’ Black Worker Initiative. These speakers and two panels of local labor, civil rights, and community leaders, discussed: 1. the previously-understudied and under-theorized relationship between the American labor and civil rights movements from the 1940s to the 1963 March on Washington. 2. the current state of these movements and their relationships, and the political opportunities and prospects for a renewed alliance The Forum was sponsored by Cleveland State University, The Laborers’ International Union of North America, Laborers’ Local 860, Ohio Education Association, Communications Workers of America District 4, The Laborers’ Local 265, The Ohio Laborers' District Council, Ohio AFL-CIO, Ohio Federation of Teachers, United Steel Workers of America District 1, Greater Cincinnati Building and Construction Trades Council, North Shore AFL-CIO, The Cincinnati Labor Council, A. Philip Randolph Institute, Municipal Foremen & Laborers Union Local 1099, Urban League of Greater Cleveland, and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists.