Transport Workers Union Local 100 is proud to commemorate Juneteenth

TWU’s fight against racism dates back to the union’s earliest days; activists in the early 1930s organized all workers, regardless of their race or country of origin. In fact, the TWU’s very first charter with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, granted in 1937, included language banning discrimination. 
 
Management at the time only hired African Americans into cleaning jobs as Porters – until TWU began breaking color barriers preventing employment as Train Operator, Bus Operator, and all the other titles.
 
 

Juneteenth – also called Emancipation Day and Freedom Day – commemorates June 19, 1865. On that date, federal troops arriving in Texas informed the enslaved African Americans they were free. President Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, but it could not be implemented in areas still under control of the Confederacy. 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a short video on the history of Juneteenth: