(Photo by Daniel Shular)
By Christopher Brooks
The Scene staff
Many people take workers’ rights for granted, not realizing that activists in the 19th and 20th centuries risked their lives to make things better for future generations.
Phi Theta Kappa members at Forest Park discovered this while preparing an exhibit on labor leaders that will be displayed in the library this semester.
“This experience for our students is essential,” said Tamela Turner, co-adviser to Xi Epsilon, the Forest Park chapter of Phi Theta Kappa. “They learned so much.”
Phi Theta Kappa chapters are required to develop Honors in Action research projects each year. Xi Epsilon met this requirement by creating the exhibit, which consists of student essays and about 40 posters.
The exhibit is called “Workers’ Rights are Human Rights: Labor Union Leaders, Past and Present.” After an opening reception on Sept. 27, the exhibit will run from Sept. 28 through Oct. 4 with Vice President of Leadership Noreen Dela Pena, an Early Learning Academy student, studied Larry Itliong, who fought for the rights of farm laborers and helped organize an important strike against California grape growers in the 1960s.
“He was a Filipino like I am, and I felt bad about the way they mistreated him,” Pena said. “He was fighting for equal wages, and he would eventually became the founder of the U.H.F. (United Farm Workers).”
Itliong struck Pena as strong, courageous and smart. She noted that he had only seven fingers. He lost the other three in an accident at an Alaska cannery where he worked.
In early March, Xi Epsilon hosted a union summit on campus that included speeches, information tables, petitions and other activism. Members were so inspired, co-adviser Sandra Knight suggested that they study labor leaders for their Honors in Action project.
One of the union leaders at the summit was Keith Robinson, president of the St. Louis Chapter of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, an organization for African American trade unionists.
Turner had heard of Randolph, but she didn’t know much about his life. She went to the library, checked out a book and learned that he organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first black union.
Turner later viewed a documentary about Dolores Huerta, a labor leader and civil rights activist, who founded the National Farmworkers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers, with Cesar Chavez.
Turner’s enthusiasm for the topic of labor leaders rubbed off on Xi Epsilon officers.
“There are no civil rights, women’s rights, educational rights or health-care rights without workers’ rights,” Turner said. “All these rights are inextricably linked.”
Turner started creating posters of the labor leaders, but she wasn’t sure what to do with them until she went to another exhibit, “Working in America,” at the main branch of St. Louis Public Library.
That exhibit commemorates the Studs Terkel book “Working: People Talk about What They Do and How They Feel about What They Do.” It consists of 24 photographs and essays about working people.
Turner figured Xi Epsilon could host a similar exhibit at Forest Park, teaching social justice through art. Each member was required to study a labor leader and write a one-page essay, including his or her strategies for promoting union membership and fighting for workers’ rights.
The “Workers’ Rights are Human Rights” exhibit will be displayed on the lower level of the Forest Park library building. Hours are 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Fridays and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. Admission is free.
An opening reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Sept. 27. For more information, contact Turner at tcturner@stlcc.edu.