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Memphis-born · AFSCME for 38 Years · The Conscience of the Labor Movement
November 26, 1933 — September 25, 2024
He created the four-word slogan that became a movement. He built the room when the AFL-CIO wouldn't open the door. He led the world's largest union federation. He brought Mandela to America. He helped elect a president. And every step of the way, he carried Randolph and Rustin's vision forward into the rank-and-file.
"I AM A MAN was not a request. It was a declaration."
— William Lucy
Black Labor Power — 16 Modules · Randolph + Rustin + Lucy
Sister institutions, born seven years apart, fighting the same fight from different rooms. Bill Lucy is the bridge.
Randolph
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters founded.
Randolph + Rustin
Institute fuses civil rights + labor at the top.
Lucy + AFSCME
Memphis Sanitation Strike — placards by Lucy.
Lucy + 4 founders
Rank-and-file body built at LaSalle Hotel, Chicago.
A. Philip Randolph + Bayard Rustin built an institute at the elite level — close coordination with AFL-CIO leadership, structured outreach, institutional credibility. Top-down vision.
See A. Philip Randolph × APRI MemphisWilliam Lucy + four co-founders built a rank-and-file body — convened independently of AFL-CIO leadership, focused on Black union members, willing to take political stands when the AFL-CIO would not. Bottom-up power.
Visit cbtu.orgBoth bodies still exist. Both are AFL-CIO Black constituency organizations. Same fight — different rooms. Lucy is the bridge.
The Memphis chapter of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists stands in the city where William Lucy was born and where 'I AM A MAN' was first declared. CBTU Memphis works alongside APRI Memphis as the two sister AFL-CIO Black constituency chapters in the region — advancing Black workers' voice in every local labor fight.
The Memphis APRI president, the late Kermit Moore (also longtime NAACP), and CBTU Memphis leadership have worked the same fight from different rooms — exactly as Randolph, Rustin, and Lucy designed it.
CBTU MEMPHIS DIRECTORY
CBTU Memphis Chapter PageFive modules fully built and teacher-ready — co-bylined with CBTU Memphis. Each module is a single class (45 min) or block (90 min), with objectives, primary sources, discussion guide, activity, exit ticket, and extensions. Companion curricula on the Randolph and Rustin pages.
As AFSCME's national lead on the Memphis Sanitation Strike, Lucy crafted the four-word placard that turned a strike for wages and safety into a moral declaration. The phrase reframed labor as dignity — and made Memphis 1968 the bridge between the labor and civil rights movements.
Co-founded the Free South Africa Movement on Nov 21, 1984. Led Nelson Mandela's U.S. tour after his release from prison. Served on the AFL-CIO delegation that monitored South Africa's first democratic post-apartheid elections (1994).
In 1994, Lucy became the first African American elected President of Public Services International — the world's largest union federation, today representing 30M+ workers across 100+ countries.
Used CBTU's networks to deliver one of the earliest critical labor endorsements for Obama. Mobilized Black union members nationwide and helped legitimize Obama's candidacy within both the labor movement and the broader Black community.
September 1972, LaSalle Hotel, Chicago: Lucy and four co-founders convened 1,200 Black union officials from 37 unions — the largest assembly of Black trade unionists in U.S. labor history. They created CBTU to fight discrimination 'within the house of labor.' Lucy served as CBTU president for 40 years.
As AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer for nearly four decades (1972-2010), Lucy grew the union from 200,000 members to over 1.4 million across 3,500 local unions — the highest-ranking African American in the entire labor movement.
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The full lineage is on the platform. A. Philip Randolph × APRI Memphis has six teacher-ready modules. Bayard Rustin & Memphis 1968 has Module 1 ready. Bill Lucy × CBTU Memphis now has five — covering CBTU founding, Memphis 1968, the Free South Africa Movement, PSI 1994, and the 2008 Obama endorsement.
Labor Education builds with CBTU and honors the institutions doing this work full-time. Start here:
Carry Lucy's name forward
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Stewarded by CBTU Memphis. Labor Education thanks the elders who paid the way.
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Created by Kevin Bradshaw