When you stand up for Civil Rights and Workers Rights you never know how far the struggle may travel.
This was the case on this day in Labor History the year was 1963.
West Indian immigrants in Bristol, England held a press conference to announce a boycott of the city buses.
They were inspired by the bus boycott led by Dr. Martin Luther King, in Montgomery, Alabama.
The Bristol Omnibus company would not hire West Indian or black bus drivers.
While the company would hire non-white workers for the garage, a color bar stood between the West Indian workers and the more lucrative driving jobs.
Even though the company had a driver shortage, they would only take white applicants.
In 1962, four Jamaican men had founded the West Indian Development Council.
The Council aimed to address the employment and housing discrimination, and threats of violence that West Indians faced every day.
They were inspired by what they saw unfolding in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.
They decided to take action. Some 7,000 West Indians in Bristol answered the call to boycott the buses.
The bus company management blamed the drivers’ union for the policy of discrimination. Indeed, some individual bus drivers spoke out that they did not want to work with West Indian people.
But the union leadership adamantly denied they wanted the color bar.
The boycott wore on for four months.
And in the end finally, the color bar was lifted.
That September, A Sikh named Raghbir Singh became the first-non white driver.
The flame for justice that had been lit in Alabama had also caught fire in England.
As we fight for worker’s rights and social justice today, we must always remember our brothers and sisters who share our fight across the globe.
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Labor History in 2:00 brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and The Rick Smith Show