Yesterday, I gave a speech at the historic Clark Atlanta University drawing upon the story of an incredible group of Black women. I'd like to take a moment to share it with you, NAME.
So, let's go back to 1881.
After the tyranny of slavery, thousands of African Americans came to Atlanta hoping to build new lives, lives full of promise. But what they found was a crushing disappointment. The war for freedom from enslavement had been won, but the fight for equality -- the fight for opportunity -- was only just beginning.
Black women and girls found that pretty much the only work white employers allowed them to do was the work that they'd been forced to do when they had been enslaved: Caring for white families. Thousands of women living in Atlanta scratched out a living as washerwomen.
Monday through Saturday, they made their way to white families, trudging from house to house picking up piles of dirty laundry. They lifted and poured buckets of water into washing tubs. They scrubbed the clothes using soap so caustic it left their hands raw.
All for less than a dollar a day.
It was July 1881, when 20 of Atlanta's Black washerwomen threw down their washboards, formed a union, The Washing Society, and went on strike. They demanded higher wages, and to be treated with a little dignity. The washerwomen had a plan.
Black women led, but soon, the handful of white women washers realized that the only way to better wages was to follow the lead of Black women. In the space of three weeks, 20 women on strike became 200 women, which became 2,000.
The employers struck back. They warned that they would start their own modern industrial laundry service to replace the washerwomen permanently. They threatened the striking washerwomen with huge rent increases and eviction. They got the local police to fine members of the union and to arrest strikers.
And when the city council threatened to intervene, the women sent a public letter to the mayor of Atlanta and said they would not back down. They went right to the heart of the matter, and I quote: "We mean business."
Then it happened. The employers, the city council, the powerful white citizens -- they all backed down. The women won!
The implications of this fight were enormous -- and so was the response. As the idea that Black and white workers could make real structural change if they fought side by side began to spark to life, an evil force was once again mobilizing against it.
But racist politicians doubled down. They divided Black people and white people in every moment of every day of every life, using force, violence, and intimidation to oppress Blacks and to ensure that Blacks and whites would never come together to stand up against those in power.
Black history is American history. And American history teaches us that racism has for generations shaped every crucial aspect of our economic and political system.
Racism told white workers not to organize in the South because so long as you're white, you're a little better off than your brother on the line. A little better off -- even though neither of you has a union to protect you or a pension to support you.
Racism told segregated white communities that they should just abandon their public schools, rather than let their kids learn and play with Black children.
And by the 2000s, racism told everyone in Washington to look the other way when the banks were testing out predatory loans in Black and Brown communities. Those banks then spread those loans across the market and crashed the entire economy for all working people.
And to this day racism will whisper the convenient lie to some white people that if your life has problems, you should blame "them" -- people who don't look like you.
The wealthy and well-connected want us to believe that more for your neighbors will always mean less for you.
The truth is, when we come together, we can ALL move forward. Racism doesn't just tear apart Black and Brown communities -- it keeps ALL working people down. Racism props up the wealthy and powerful, leaving them free to take more wealth and more power for themselves.
Donald Trump didn't create this divide and conquer system. But he wouldn't be in power without it. After eight years of progress under President Obama, Trump's embrace of white supremacy, white nationalism, and corruption threaten to break our democracy beyond repair.
Divide and conquer is an old political tactic -- and it comes in all sorts of ugly flavors: Racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic. It's the phobic -- that's the key part. Because it's all about fear.
Politics based in fear. The rich and powerful want us to be afraid of each other. Why? Because they're afraid of us. Afraid of our numbers. Afraid of seeing us stand together. Afraid that we will take up each other's fights as our own.
Afraid that they will lose their power.
In the face of racism, hatred, bigotry, and corruption -- Black history, American history, teaches us how to confront this moment of challenge. Black history teaches us how to stand up when we're told to sit down. How to speak out when we're told to be silent. And how to march on when the road gets rough.
Now more than ever, all of us have to embrace the lessons of Black history. The rich and powerful aren't going to just give away their power. No, if we want power, we have to fight for it!
Like the women of the Washing Society, that is exactly what we will do.
Thanks for being a part of this,
Elizabeth
Yesterday, Elizabeth gave a speech about the Atlanta washerwomens' strike of 1881. She spoke about what's possible when working women fight side by side -- and persist against all odds.
Now, it's our moment to take up the fight. Chip in if you're ready to dream big, fight hard, and win.
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