Memphis Building & Construction
Trades Council
Powering · Labor Education
THE SOUTH GOT SOMETHING TO SAY
Educate · Organize · Mobilize · #LaborEducation
The People Who Built the Movement
Organizers, scholars, and leaders who gave their lives to working people — the big sisters and brothers of the labor movement. Their stories are our curriculum.
Gail Tyree
Big Sister of the Movement
Former Executive Director of AFSCME Local 1733 — the union of the 1968 Sanitation Strikers — now organizing with CWA International & CWA Local 3866. Numerous boards, many awards, one calling.
Rose Turner
A Shining Light in the South
UFCW Local 1529 Secretary-Treasurer. Key leader of the 1990 Delta Pride Catfish Strike — the largest strike by Black workers in Mississippi history — and still winning first contracts today.
Dr. Charles McKinney
The Professor of the Movement
Rhodes College historian of the Black freedom struggle, WIN board member, Memphis For All chair, Labor South team — and trainer of union organizers across the South.
Benny Overton
From the Shop Floor to Shared Ownership
Former President of UAW Local 737 who negotiated 70+ self-directed work groups at the Nashville glass plant — then co-founded the Southeast Center for Cooperative Development, teaching and financing worker-owned businesses across Tennessee.
Braxton Winston II
The Stagehand President
IATSE Locals 322 & 491 stagehand, former Charlotte Mayor Pro Tem, now President of the North Carolina State AFL-CIO — organizing the least-unionized state in the nation.
“May we build with hands strengthened by solidarity, sit at tables shaped by the dignity of our labor, and leave every generation of workers more power and a greater share of what they create.”
— Kevin Bradshaw
President, Memphis CLC · Founder of Labor Education
Know a legend we should honor?
This wall grows. If someone gave their years to working people — in Memphis, the Mid-South, or anywhere labor stands — tell President Bradshaw and we'll build their story.
Support This Project
This page is built and maintained by the Union Strong Labor Education App — a free platform built by the labor movement, for the labor movement.
Or donate directly:
