“Champions” features current and historic figures who can inspire the struggle for a worker- and climate- safe world.
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Isaac Myers, was born in 1835, was a pioneering Black trade unionist, a cooperative organizer, and a caulker. Since the state of Maryland did not offer public education for Black youth, Myers had to acquire his early education from a private day school run by Rev. John Fortie. At 16, he began work as a caulker, sealing seams in ships.
In 1860, Myers left caulking to work in a grocery business leading him to set up a short-lived cooperative grocery in 1864. He returned to caulking in 1865. After the American Civil War, white workers’ competition for jobs led to strikes and protests, forcing over 1000 black caulkers to lose their jobs. Myers proposed the workers collectively pool resources and form a cooperative shipyard and railway, the Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company, to provide themselves with employment. The cooperative, opening in February 1866, was initially a great success, employing over 300 black workers. Myers and others also established the Colored Caulkers Trade Union Society in 1868, to which he was elected president. The National Labor Union took an interest, inviting the Colored Caulkers Trade Union Society to their annual convention. The move was significant for what had previously been an all-white union, but black workers continued to face opposition to membership. In response, the Colored National Labor Union was established in 1869, with Myers as president.
https://aaregistry.org/story/isaac-myers-labor-union-administrator-born/