Tana Loy speaking in front of a podium with a microphone, black and white photo
Speech:

Who’s the Barbarian?

Speaker:

Tana Loy

1961 - 1980 / LGBTQ+ Activism and Race Equity
Tana Loy served as a featured speaker at the 1979 National Conference of Third World Lesbians and Gays (NCTWLG) held in Washington, D.C. and organized by The National Coalition of Black Gays. The first NCTWLG conference sought to reimagine the future of LGBTQ+ people of color internationally.  Read more.
Lyndon B. Johnson in a black and white photo in front of an American flag, holding up a peace sign, in front of a podium and sign that says, "7th Annual Convention, Illinois State"
Speech:

Address to the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department Conference

Speaker:

Lyndon B. Johnson

1961 - 1980 / Civil Rights and Labor Justice
Lyndon Baines Johnson was born on August 27, 1908, in the middle of the Hill Country in Stonewall, Texas. Johnson’s father, Sam Ealy Johnson Jr., was an elected representative in the Texas legislature, fashioning himself as a populist and “man of the people.” LBJ’s mother, Rebekah Baines Johnson, was the highly-educated daughter of an attorney. Johnson’s parents moved to a small farm in Texas. Life on the farm was not as easy as the standard of living his parents were accustomed to. Indeed, Johnson would frequently tell of the difficulties his family faced growing up and his own work in the cotton fields. While these hardships were likely exaggerated by Johnson, he nevertheless developed “a natural sympathy for the poor and oppressed.” During his late teens, Johnson also worked with Latinx and African American laborers while building and repairing roads.  Read more.
A. Phillip Randolph, black and white portrait in a suit, staring into the camera
Speech:

Endorsement of Hubert Humphrey followed by Questions and Answers with Reporters

Speaker:

A. Phillip Randolph

1961 - 1980 / Civil Rights and Race Equity
Philip Randolph was born in Jacksonville, Florida on April 15, 1889. Asa Philip was born to working-class parents that exuberated race pride and religious piety. After attending college and finding the working conditions of the Jim Crow South untenable, Randolph moved to New York in 1911.  Read more.
John Brademas portrait in black and white, with a nametag that reads, "The Honorable John Brademas"
Speech:

Rehabilitation Act of 1973

Speaker:

John Brademas

1961 - 1980 / Disability Rights and Labor Justice
The first time John Brademas ran for Congress, he lost. When he tried the second time, he lost again. It was not until his third bid in 1958 that he was elected as a Democrat representing the Third Congressional District of Indiana. In the House of Representatives, Brademas earned a reputation for being “one of the key men in Washington” on education policy; he also worked to expand access for arts education and disability rights. Many students still benefit from his work today through their right to a 504 Plan that gives them necessary disability accommodations.  Read more.
Laurie Morton in front of a podium in a black and white photo
Speech:

The Feminist Movement and the Gay Movement: How Are They Related?

Speaker:

Laurie Morton

1961 - 1980 / Gender Equity, LGBTQ+ Activism, and Social Justice
Laurie Morton was a prominent member of the Radical Women organization based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1967, the group claims to be the oldest socialist feminist organization in existence. As a social feminist group, its members were committed to “exposing, resisting, and eliminating the inequities of women’s existence."  Read more.
Close-up of Angela Davis in a black and white photo speaking into a microphone
Speech:

Speech at Angela Davis Rally

Speaker:

Paula Crenshaw

1961 - 1980 / Gender Equity and Race Equity
Angela Davis, activist, academic, author, and former political prisoner, gained global attention in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She gained widespread attention when she faced murder charges in a trial that inspired an “unprecedented political campaign waged for her release all over the world.”  Read more.
Chavez at National Press Club in a yellow-tinted photo, speaking in front of a microphone and podium in a crowded room of mostly men
Speech:

Speech at the National Press Club

Speaker:

César Chávez

1961 - 1980 / Labor Justice and Social Justice
César Estrada Chávez was born near Yuma, Arizona on March 31, 1927, to Mexican-American parents, Librado Chávez and Juana Estrada Chávez. César’s mother was “a person of great faith” who modeled self-sacrifice and the necessity of helping others. Chávez’s father, Librado, owned a store and pool hall until debt and the Depression forced him to sell the properties, eventually causing his family with five children to lose their home.  Read more.
Chavez in Filipino Hall in Delano announcing victory for farmworkers; Black and white photo in front of a microphone, smoking a cigarette and holding a piece of paper
Speech:

Speech at Graham Memorial Chapel

Speaker:

César Chávez

1961 - 1980 / Labor Justice
César Estrada Chávez was born in Arizona’s North Gila Valley on March 21, 1927. Chávez was the son of farmworkers, Librado and Juana, and spent much of his youth working in the fields after the loss of the beloved family farm. Following the harvest from Arizona to California, Chávez was exposed to the harsh conditions of migratory labor and the rampant discrimination that Mexican farmworkers faced. At an early age, Chávez learned about the tactics of organizing from his mother, Juana, who showed him how to create community and care for others. Chávez eventually became the Executive Director of the Community Service Organization (CSO). At the CSO, he worked with renowned activists, Saul Alinsky and Fred Ross, to protect voting rights for Mexican immigrants in particular.[note]Susan Ferriss and Ricardo Sandoval, The Fight in the Fields: César Chávez and the Farmworkers Movement (New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1997), 37-68.[/note] But the CSO’s lack of attention to farmworker needs propelled him to resign in Spring 1962, launching instead the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA).[note]Peter Mathiessen, Sal Si Puedes: Cesar Chavez and the New American Revolution (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1969, 2014).[/note] Chávez moved his wife, Helen, and their eight children, from Santa Barbara to Delano, where they mobilized the farmworker movement, el moviemento, forever changing the agricultural landscape of California. Building on his predecessors’ legacies, Chávez partnered with farmworker activist Dolores Huerta. Together, they created the NWFA to adequately address the vast needs of farmworkers and their families.[note]Ferriss and Sandoval, The Fight in the Fields, 67.[/note] Huerta was an experienced organizer and had co-founded the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) in 1959 that attracted membership from mostly Filipino farmworkers. In 1964, Huerta left AWOC to join Chávez at the NFWA in order to better organize Mexican farmworkers.[note]Ibid., 70-72.[/note] In 1965, the Delano grape strikes would put in motion the merger of AWOC and NFWA to form the United Farm Workers (UFW). Under the leadership of Larry Itliong, AWOC initially organized a strike of Filipino grape pickers in Delano for an increase in wages. Itliong approached Chávez to support the strike and prevent Chicano workers from being hired as “scabs,” or strikebreakers, who cross the picket lines to work. Chavez had strong reservations on aligning with such a young organization, but on September 16, 1965, the NFWA voted to join AWOC’s efforts, significantly strengthening the numbers and diversity of the workers on strike.[note]Ibid., 87-88.[/note] While strikers picketed and recruited in the fields, Chávez developed a rhetorical career that would capture public attention, eventually leading to a global boycott of grapes. In March 1966, Chávez and 70 other strikers walked 340 miles from Delano to Sacramento, the California state capital, to pressure the Schenley corporation, a major grape grower, to sign a union contract. Along the march route, NFWA members recruited tens of thousands of supporters and generated national media coverage. In his speeches, Chávez urged people everywhere to support the farmworkers by boycotting non-union grapes. Union volunteers traveled to cities across the country to picket grocers selling non-union grapes and encourage union-friendly groups to publicly join the boycott.[note] John C. Hammerback and Richard J. Jensen, The Rhetorical Career of César Chávez (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1998), 92.[/note] With so much pressure mounting, the growers eventually conceded to a temporary contract, modestly increasing wages and modestly increasing profits on grapes picked. However, the success of the strike only fed the confidence of farmworkers, instilling faith in the possibility of a union. One year after their first joint efforts as partner organizations, the NFWA and AWOC merged to become the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC) on August 22, 1966.[note]Ferriss and Sandoval, The Fight in the Fields, 87-88.[/note] In the early 1970s, Chávez and the UFW were once again drawn into confrontation with growers in the Salinas Valley over contracts with lechugeros, or lettuce cutters. Corporate growers were alarmed by the strength of the farmworkers movement and attempted to suppress any efforts that would legalize the farmworkers’ right to organize. The UFW had won key contracts with grape growers and improved the lives of grape pickers throughout California without a law to enforce their rights. The UFW facilitated a strike of lechugeros and a national boycott of lettuce beginning in 1970.[note]Ibid., 174-189.[/note] This speech by Chávez was delivered on February 1, 1973, at Graham Memorial Chapel on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Chávez’s speech is typical of his rhetorical career. Chávez was not a fiery speaker, but rather unpretentious and soft-spoken. He was modest to the point of using self-deprecating humor and projecting a persona that aimed to identify with his audiences. The Catholic Church provided Chávez’s moral grounding for his ideas and his resolute commitment to non-violence. Chávez’s goal was to help audiences identify with the movement, and build their confidence so that they felt empowered not just to join, but to lead and organize as well. He used plain speech to articulate the goals of the movement in a way that his audiences understood by making clear that his experiences reflected their experiences.[note]Hammerback and Jensen, The Rhetorical Career of César Chávez, 11-24.[/note] In the months following this speech, the UFW would endure vicious and violent attacks by the Teamsters resulting in multiple deaths and thousands of arrests.[note]Ferriss and Sandoval, The Fight in the Fields, 184-189.[/note] The Teamsters worked with growers to fight unionization efforts and create contracts with laborers that would preserve grower profits. Between 1973 and 1975, millions of Americans would boycott non-union grapes and lettuce. In his dress, speech, and actions, Chávez embodied the life and views of Chicano people, cultivating his identity as the “Father of all Chicanos."[note]Ibid., 252.[/note] Chávez died in his sleep on April 22, 1993, in San Luis, Arizona.[note]Ibid., 253.[/note]  Read more.
Black and white portrait of George Meany with glasses and a suit, looking off to the side
Speech:

Legislative Conference, Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW)

Speaker:

George Meany

1961 - 1980 / Labor Justice

Former plumber from the Bronx, George Meany (1894 - 1980) became president of the New York State Federation of Labor in 1934. In one year alone, he helped pass over 72 pro-labor bills in Congress. Elected president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1952 after the death of William Green, Meany merged the AFL with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in 1955. [note]Martin Weil and Warren Brown, “Labor Leader George Meany Dies of Cardiac Arrest at 85,” Washington Post, January 11, 1980, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/01/11/labor-leader-george-meany-dies-of-cardiac-arrest-at-85/1efcac53-8ab0-4e76-82e7-061d61cb2d60/?utm_term=.393f061a9712.[/note] As president, Meany dubbed the AFL-CIO the “people’s lobby” because it spoke for average citizens and helped build a democratic society by lobbying politicians and combating corruption.[note]"George Meany," AFL-CIO America's Unions, 2019, https://aflcio.org/about/history/labor-history-people/george-meany.[/note]

Meany also addressed the state of women and unemployment in the labor movement’s political agenda. The Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) was founded in 1974 to help women attain leadership positions in the workforce. Shortly after its formation, the CLUW worked with the AFL-CIO to advance women’s rights in the labor movement with a focus on passing the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). After the AFL-CIO endorsed the ERA in 1975, Meany was derided as a “closet feminist."[note]A.H. Rankin, "Archive: Growing Acceptance for the Coalition of Labor Women," New York Times, October 19, 1977, https://www.nytimes.com/1977/10/19/archives/ah-raskin-growing-acceptance-for-the-coalition-of-union-women.html.[/note]

The public was divided over the ERA leading up to Meany’s 1977 address on women and labor. Pro-ERA organizations like the National Organization for Women (NOW) and ERAmerica, a coalition of 80 organizations, helped make Indiana the 35th state to ratify the ERA.[note]Equal Rights Amendment: A Workshop Guide (District of Columbia: National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year, 1977), https://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cbibliographic_details%7C2520160.[/note] But prominent opposition to the ERA included, among others, Phyllis Schlafly’s STOP ERA, the National Council of Catholic Women, and the Daughters of the American Revolution.[note]Alyssa Samek, "Mobility, Citizenship, and 'American Women on the Move' in the 1977 International Women's Year Torch Relay," Quarterly Journal of Speech 103, no. 3 (2017): 207-229.[/note] Others opposed the ERA because they believed women needed protective labor laws that the ERA might erode.[note] Timothy J. Minchin, Labor Under Fire: A History of the AFL-CIO Since 1979 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017), 34-35.[/note]

Meany’s address was delivered at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., on September 16, 1977. Despite the fact that the speech was given before the CLUW, Meany emphasized the goals and future directions of the labor movement in general. Meany praised the organization for its commitment to “all working people”[note]George Meany, "Legislative Conference, Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW)," para. 31.[/note] and argued that the AFL-CIO and the CLUW must work together for “full employment, minimum wage, labor law reform, pregnancy benefits, [and] national health insurance.” He argued that these were “not women’s issues,” but “labor issues, trade union issues."[note]Ibid., para. 29.[/note] Meany stood out at the time for taking women’s labor issues and the ERA so seriously.[note]"Gender Equality," United Nations, n.d., https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/gender-equality/. [/note] Meany used humor in expressing solidarity with feminists in his response to criticism that he was a “closet feminist”: “If supporting a living wage for all workers makes me a feminist, move over, sisters. I’ve been called a lot worse."[note]Meany, "Legislative Conference," para.11.[/note]

In addition to the ERA, Meany expressed strong support for Carter’s Labor Reform Bill in this speech. The country was facing an economic recession through much of the 1970s. Carter’s Labor Reform Bill would have made it more difficult for employers to compete against unions. Meany believed that Carter’s support for pro-union policies would punish the employers who “made a mockery” of the National Labor Relations Act passed 42 years before his address.[note]Ibid., para. 21.[/note] The bill would guarantee that workers could freely join unions and collectively bargain. Yet, Carter’s bill ultimately failed in the Senate.[note]Charles W. Baird, "Labor Law Reform: Lessons from History," Cato Journal 10, no. 1 (1990): 176.[/note]

On July 9, 1978, a year after the CLUW speech, Meany spoke at the national ERA march and rally in favor of the ERA, promising that the AFL-CIO “will continue – at the national and state level – to fight for ERA."[note]George Meany, "National ERA March and Rally, 1978 Jul 9," AFL-CIO Record, Office of the President George Meany Files (1940-1980), Box 85, Folder 78, George Meany Memorial AFL-CIO Archives, Special Collections, Hornbake Library, University of Maryland, College Park, MD.[/note] At this time, 35 of the 38 states needed to ratify the ERA had passed the amendment, but ERA supporters were almost out of time to secure the votes. The amendment had to be ratified within seven years of its introduction. Women’s organizations such as NOW worked to repeal the seven-year deadline, and on October 2, 1978, Congress extended the ratification deadline to June 30, 1982. Despite the extension, support for the ERA lost momentum and the ERA fell three states shy of ratification.[note]Allison L. Held, Sheryl L. Herndon, and Danielle M. Stager, "The Equal Rights Amendment: Why the Era Remains Legally Viable and Properly Before the States," William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice 113, no. 3 (1997): 117.[/note]

Although the ERA failed, Meany is remembered for his various reform efforts and as the “personification of the American labor movement."[note] Weil and Brown, "Labor Leader George Meany Dies of Cardiac Arrest at 85."[/note] He died at age 85 from cardiac arrest at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C.[note]Ibid.[/note]

 Read more.
Rosalyn Carter Photo speaking in front of a podium and multiple microphones, smiling
Speech:

Remarks of the First Lady at the Gridiron Dinner

Speaker:

Rosalynn Carter

1961 - 1980 / Civil Rights and Gender Equity
First Lady Rosalynn Carter used her influence to expand the role of first lady. With the potential to be the “most active First Lady in decades,” Carter lobbied for the Equal Rights Amendment and mental health programs, and she also encouraged Americans to volunteer for those in need, supported government aid for the elderly, and championed extracurricular activities for the youth.  Read more.