In 1915, historian Carter G. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, now known as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). In 1926, the organization established a week-long celebration of Black history, selecting February in honor of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln – two men Woodson believed to be freedom fighters – and an observance of their birthdays.
In 1976, President Gerald R. Ford issued a message recognizing Black History Week, then Black History Month, after ASALH expanded the commemoration.
In 1986, the U.S. Congress passed Public Law 99-244, designating February as National Black History Month and directing U.S. Presidents to issue proclamations for its observance in years to come.
Black History Month 2025
Each year, ASALH defines a theme for the month-long celebration to focus public attention on specific sectors and developments that merit emphasis. This year, the theme is “African Americans and Labor,” with a focus on the ways that “work and working of all kinds – free and unfree, skilled, and unskilled, vocational and voluntary – intersect with the collective experiences of Black people.”
Noting that work is “at the very center of much of Black history and culture,” this year’s commemoration calls attention to the importance of socio-economic equity achieved through agricultural, vocational, corporate and entrepreneurial pursuits.
Throughout history, labor has been a strong consideration in the fight for civil rights. Many of the most famous speeches from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. are taken from demonstrations of support for unions and striking workers. He believed that labor has dignity and worth, and that labor rights and civil rights were inseparable.
Socio-economic equity is at the center of the current political landscape, with major corporations rolling back protections for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). In Colorado, organizational leaders are taking a stand and fighting to protect workforce equity for communities of color.
Industrial Equity
The Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO) works to eliminate barriers to participation in the transportation industry for people of color, women, veterans and people with disabilities. The organization provides leadership training, professional development, scholarships, internship opportunities and political advocacy to support over 3,000 transportation workers in 40 chapters.
Rico Nelson, CEO of Colorado-based engineering and construction firm, Civil Technology, serves as president of COMTO’s Colorado chapter. In addition to the work he does to support redevelopment across the state, his role at COMTO Colorado engages him in a mission to provide access to employment, career and contract opportunities.
Part of the driving force behind Nelson’s impactful work is an acknowledgement of the roots of Black labor in America.
“It was labor that was being traded from West Africa to the Western hemisphere, going back to the founding of this country,” he says. “It’s a very sad history in many ways, but it speaks to the resilience of the people. We can’t tell the story about [Black labor] without acknowledging where it originated.”
Believing that younger generations should know the history of Black labor and its role in creating American infrastructure, Nelson says, “…Railways, waterways, roadways, bridges and facilities…you have a preponderance of the work done by African Americans.”
Labor Protections in Colorado
Colorado Workers for Innovative and New Solutions (WINS) is a labor union that represents over 27,000 state employees by improving pay, safety and work conditions, ensuring an equitable workforce throughout the state.
The union’s president, Skip Miller, has worked as an IT professional and state employee for 20 years, and his unique perspective of Black American labor includes recognition of the courageousness that rests at the foundation of economic growth. From enslavement to segregation, discrimination kept the Black community from achieving economic equity, but Miller points to migration as a turning point in history.
“I grew up in Detroit,” he says. “My family worked in the auto industry. Having these good union jobs allowed them to progress to things that they would have never achieved had they stayed in the South.”
Homeownership was attainable for his parents, and he calls his graduation from the University of Colorado Denver with a bachelor’s degree in IT services a “generational change.”
“I owe all that to Black labor. That’s a direct impact on me and my kids, because I passed that legacy on to them.”
When WINS was created in 2007, he was eager to get involved, knowing the benefit for employees – particularly those within the Black community.
“You read any of our history; we’ve always wanted to contribute. We contributed much more than we had received toward building this country….It was never a lack of ambition or ability, it was about opportunity.”
The State of Black Labor
With the Great Migration resulting in over one million Black workers entering steel, automobile, shipbuilding and meatpacking industries between 1916 and 1930, unions grew and gained power.
During World War II, Asa Phillip Randolph played a vital role in helping to desegregate the armed forces and establish the Fair Employment Practices Commission. He assisted Black porters in a fight against low wages from the Pullman Palace Car Company, resulting in the creation of the first Black labor union in the U.S., The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) in 1925.
After the war, Black labor unions joined the fight for civil rights. Pushback against unionization from anti-union forces reached a boiling point in 1955 during The Montgomery Bus Boycott, when E.D. Nixon approached Dr. King with an offer to lead the Montgomery Improvement Association.
The Civil Rights Movement was largely supported by thousands of trade unionists, whose support increased national attention and rallied a call for better working conditions as part of the movement’s platform. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which provides protections against discriminatory hiring practices.
Today, the evolution of Black labor involves technology, healthcare, finance, government, business, engineering, culinary arts, media, education and more, with Black labor participation rates at nearly 63%. However, legislation ensuring an equitable workplace has come under threat with the election of U.S. President Donald Trump. Corporate divestments from DEI programs following his efforts to rollback protections make the economic landscape even more uncertain for communities of color.
Still, with tremendous advancement underscoring the state of Black labor from the arrival of the first enslaved people on American shores, this year’s Black History Month theme highlights Black unions and caucuses, Black professionals and a future of economic possibilities for Black youth.
ASALH supports the allocation of the theme, saying, “The work Black people do and have done has been instrumental in shaping the lives, cultures and histories of Black people and the societies in which they live. Understanding Black labor and its impact in all these multivariate settings is integral to understanding Black people and their histories.”
From the forced labor of enslaved people to the resilience and innovation of Black workers in the face of systemic discrimination, their contributions have shaped industry, fueled progress and advanced the fight for socio-economic justice to move society closer to collective prosperity.
Editor’s note: To learn more about ASALH, visit www.asalh.org.
