One hundred years ago this month, a Black Scholar and the son of former slaves set out to change the way we celebrate our shared history.

Carter Woodson was tired of seeing the role of African Americans overlooked and underappreciated, and in 1926 he declared the very first “Negro History Week” - a predecessor to today’s Black History Month.

For Woodson, this designation wasn’t just about recognizing the past.

It was meant to “inspire us to greater achievements” in the future, as he once put it.

A century later, during Black History Month, we celebrate the Civil Rights and Labor Rights Leaders who came before us.

People like A. Philip Randolph, who founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters - the Nation’s first all-Black Labor Union - and who organized the 1963 March on Washington that helped stir the conscience of the Nation.

People like longtime AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Bill Lucy, Co-Founder and first President of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, who was a key figure in helping end apartheid in South Africa.

And people like the AFSCME Sanitation Workers in Memphis, who in 1968 went on Strike for safer working conditions and a living wage - one of American History’s most iconic struggles for both racial and economic justice.

Today, we remember their sacrifices.

But we also recognize that Black History Month has never been simply a time capsule of the past.

It’s a celebration of our struggle - past, present and future - and a reminder that one voice can lead to a chorus of collective action that refuses to be silenced.

In 2026, we need more voices speaking up for Working People.

Black Workers everywhere face challenges to their very survival.

They’re being squeezed on all sides by the rising cost of everything from groceries to housing to childcare and health care.

Meanwhile, Anti-Worker politicians are more focused on cutting taxes for the rich than helping Working Families stay above water.

But it goes deeper than that.

Throughout our Nation’s history, public service jobs have been a ladder to the Middle Class for African-American Families.

Even while we were turned away from the Private Sector, Black Workers could find good-paying, Union jobs in public service.

To Continue Reading This Labor News Story, Go To: What a Century of Black History Month Teaches Us About Today’s Fight for Working People | American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)

Artwork Courtesy Of AFSCME.