Labor History Bus Tour at ALA Annual

From Jennifer Dorning, Co-Chair, AFL-CIO/ALA Labor Committee:

A special bus tour for ALA members will trace San Francisco’s labor and African American history. The tour will explore labor sites as well as sites along San Francisco’s African American Freedom Trail. The bus tour is organized by the AFL-CIO/ALA Labor Committee, a joint committee of the AFL-CIO and ALA within the Reference and User Services Association.

The roots of labor and African American history run deep in San Francisco. A. Philip Randolph touched off the modern civil rights movement from San Francisco’s Hotel Whitcomb in 1935 when he convinced the AFL-CIO to certify the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and ban segregation in the labor movement. Other historic labor events and activities include the West Coast Waterfront Strike of 1934, support for the Montgomery bus boycott, the United San Francisco Freedom Movement, anti-apartheid activities, and the church-labor coalition.

San Francisco’s African American Freedom Trail tours the sites where African American pioneers locally changed the world. One of the most dominant features of Fisherman’s Wharf is the public art of Sargent Johnson, whose work adorns the front and back of the main building of the San Francisco National Maritime Historical Park as well as the stadium of George Washington High School. Among those who drew inspiration from his work were Maya Angelou and Johnny Mathis, as they matriculated there. Just up Hyde Street from the Maritime Park is the Russian Hill mansion where Langston Hughes wrote and partied with the Hollywood upper crust in 1934-35. Also near the waterfront is the apartment where Alex Haley wrote the Autobiography of Malcolm X and ROOTS.

The joint labor and African American Freedom Trail tour will be led by Oxford University Press historian and Trail curator John William Templeton. Raise your cultural awareness of our conference host city with the knowledge of where movements were born and the greats drew their inspiration.

DETAILS:

Date: Friday, June 26, 2015

Registration Deadline: June 1, 2015

Time: 9:30am, tour will last approximately 90 minutes. Depending on demand, more times may be added.

Departs from: the passenger loading zone on the south side of Mission Street midway between 3rd and 4th Street directly behind the Moscone Convention Center.

Cost: $25

Register at: http://www.californiablackhistory.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=58

Questions? Contact AFL-CIO/ALA Labor Committee Co-Chair Jennifer Dorning at 202-638-0320 ext. 114 or jdorning@dpeaflcio.org.