“Image Courtesy of David Bacon” A rank-and-file activist in the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU), Leo Robinson was best known for fighting apartheid by helping lead a massive boycott of South African cargo that galvanized anti-apartheid movement in California‘s San Francisco Bay Area in … Read MoreLeo Lythel Robinson (1937–2013)
Benjamin Fletcher, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1890, was the most important African American in the most influential radical union of his time, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Fletcher became active in the IWW while working as a longshoreman, loading and unloading cargo … Read MoreBenjamin Harrison Fletcher (1890-1949)
Isaac Morrow, a former foreman at the Port of Tacoma, introduced the concept of on-dock intermodal shipping, which raised the port to national leadership and revolutionized the long shore industry. Morrow is a member of Tacoma’s Local No. 23 of the International Longshore and Warehouse … Read MoreIsaac Morrow (1940- )
Tacoma, Washington labor leader Ernest Charles Tanner (Ernie) was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on June 5, 1889. His father was a trapeze performer, and his mother a nurse. Moving to Tacoma with his family in 1900, Ernie Tanner attended Stadium High School where he emerged … Read MoreErnest C. Tanner (1889-1956)
Local 8 was an interracial, multiethnic local that was part of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), a militant, left-wing labor union. From its inception, the IWW has been committed to racial equality, though African Americans played a relatively small role in the organization. … Read MoreIndustrial Workers of the World (IWW) Local 8 (1913-ca. 1928)
