The launch coincided with the campus’ Black Women in Public Policy in the South Symposium. From left to right: Princess Moss, Executive Vice President of the National Education Association (NEA); Keturah Johnson, International Vice President of the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA); Tanya Wallace-Gobern, Executive Director of the National Black Worker Center (NBWC); Erica Smiley, Executive Director of Jobs With Justice; Yvonne T. Brooks, President of the Georgia AFLCIO and Kellie Morgan, International Representative of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) (Marlon Hyde/WABE)
Updated on March 27, 2025, at 10:50 a.m.
Clark Atlanta University launched a new program on Tuesday to train young Black and Brown leaders in the labor movement. Organizers say that they aim to educate and empower students, while labor leaders hope to diversify the field.
Calvin Cullen, one of the first fellows to join the Institute for the Advancement of Black Strategists, says the initiative was born from a partnership between the HBCU and Jobs with Justice, a nonprofit labor advocacy network.
“I think the goal for the institute would be to hopefully get a lot of folks, young Black leaders in labor. That’d be the ideal scenario because right now, it’s not looking so young and Black as it should,” Cullen said.
Calvin Cullen (left) is one of the first fellows to join the Institute for the Advancement of Black Strategists. Sherman Henry (right) is the director of the institute. (Marlon Hyde/WABE)
“We wanted to create more on-ramps for Black organizers and worker leaders to have the ability to also design strategy in their institutions. Whether it was in their unions or their organizations,” added Erica Smiley, the executive director of Jobs with Justice, a Washington D.C.-based labor rights organization.
The labor union advocate says this will give students work with labor groups, analyze policies like “right-to-work” laws, address economic inequality and help workers advocate for better wages and working conditions nationwide, particularly in the South.
“The Southern United States has been a global political and economic force for centuries,” said Smiley. “It has played a role in the global economy, you know, certainly first through agricultural and free labor, through agriculture and free labor, and then later through industry.”
Several labor unions tabled at the launch event. Organizers say students will work with labor groups, analyzing policies like “right-to-work” laws and addressing economic inequality, particularly in the South. (Marlon Hyde/WABE)
According to federal data, unionized workers represent about 10% of the labor force nationally. And that number drops to just 3.8% here, as Georgia is a “right-to-work” state.
Sherman Henry, the director of the labor institute, hopes to increase that number.
“Our program would ultimately teach people how to analyze and think through their value system, and quite frankly, like the Civil Rights Movement of the past, challenged society in a way that makes it better,” Henry said.
According to a recent Gallup Poll, approximately 70% of American workers approve of labor unions. While unions have not fared well historically in the South, recent organizing efforts at companies like the UPS Teamsters and Volkswagen employees in Tennesee show strong interest among Southern workers.
In addition, The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that in 2024, Black workers were more likely to be union members than White, Asian and Hispanic workers.
According to federal data, unionized workers represent about 10% of the labor force nationally. And that number drops to just 3.8% here, as Georgia is a “right-to-work” state. (Marlon Hyde/WABE)
“Us being in the South, where we know that most of the Black workers in America are in the South. So, therefore, it’s time for us to train those and where else to train people to work in labor when they’re at HBCU,” said Nykia Greene-Young, a coordinator at the W.E.B. Du Bois Southern Center for Studies and Public Policy.
The launch coincided with the campus’ Black Women in Public Policy in the South Symposium, where a panel of women labor leaders discussed the importance of collective power, solidarity and community building during this organizing movement, particularly in the South.
One of them was Yvonne Brooks, president of the Georgia State AFL-CIO.
“It’s so empowering because sometimes you feel like you’re operating in a silo by yourself,” said Brooks. “You’re in this fight by yourself, but to see people who are going through the same struggles and have the same lived experiences.”
And she says that she and her peers still have a lot of work ahead of them.
“We have a governor’s race, we have a Senate race, and all of our House and Senate races here in Georgia will be up,” she noted. “They can make changes as well.”
Correction: A previous version of our story incorrectly listed Sherman Henry as the director of Jobs With Justice. Henry is the director of The Labor Institute for the Advancement of Black Strategists initiative.
