Remembering Nate Smith, great leader for labor and civil rights.

[femmocrat]

Obituary: Nate Smith / Leader who got blacks, women in unions
Feb. 23, 1929 - March 31, 2011
Saturday, April 02, 2011
By Tim Grant, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Post-Gazette


"Nate Smith, a labor leader whose epic marches and demonstrations in 1969 led to a significant increase in minorities in the trade unions at a time when black people and women were largely excluded, died Thursday at Cedars Community Hospice in Monroeville from Alzheimer's disease. He was 82.

"Although Mr. Smith, at that time, was an uneducated man who could barely read, according to those who were close to him, he had a keen understanding of the obstacles that blacks and women faced in being admitted to skilled trade unions, and he had the passion to do something about it.

"Mr. Smith is remembered for lying down in front of a bulldozer in 1969 and causing work on Three Rivers Stadium and the USX Tower to shut down as thousands marched behind in him in the streets of Downtown Pittsburgh protesting the absence of black union workers on those job sites.

"The role he played in working with then-Pittsburgh Mayor Joseph Barr and union leaders to create a plan to get blacks and women into trade unions earned him national recognition as a civil rights leader."


Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11092/1136452-122.stm#ixzz1IP7nsTNh

[demodonkey]

1. An ordinary man who accomplished great things that opened doors for so many.

With organized labor under attack these days, it is fitting that we remember his contribution.


http://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3400:new-film-documentary-a-must-see-what-does-trouble-mean-nate-smiths-revolution&catid=44:entertainment&Itemid=48