1944 led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling in support of the black unionist!

[Omaha Steve]

Rail union official follows in great-grandfather’s footsteps

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/mar/8/rail-union-official-follows-in-great-grandfathers-/

By SHAHID ABDUL-KARIM - Associated Press - Sunday, March 8, 2015
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - The great-grandfather of Marcellus Edwards III helped lead a protest of black railroad workers against white union bosses in a bid to be represented by the same union.

That effort in 1944 led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling in support of the black unionist.

Seventy-one years later, Edwards, 50, has been elected as the first African American Connecticut legislative representative for the Association of Commuter Rail Employees, which represents Metro-North conductors.

“I can only imagine what the struggle was for him pushing that agenda and having to work in that hostile environment,” said Edwards, whose great-grandfather Rufus Edwards was a brakeman and union leader for Norfolk & Western Railway in Roanoke, Virginia.

FULL story at link.

[Liberal_in_LA]

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