Economic Rights
Many civil rights activists argued that the racism that upheld segregation and kept Black people from voting also kept many African Americans in poverty. Many demanded access to jobs, housing, and fair pay. The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom emphasized the need for greater access to good jobs for Black people in the US. While the march demanded integrated education and voting rights, it also called for a federal jobs program and a decent housing guarantee. In 1968, South Carolinians joined Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s nationwide Poor People’s Campaign.
In 1969, hospital workers in Charleston went on strike for over 100 days to demand better working conditions and pay. Led mostly by Black women, the strike drew national attention to the issue of economic rights. Although some of the workers’ demands were met, they were not allowed to form a union and continued to fight for better working conditions and wages.
May 11, 1969
On Mother’s Day, 1969, more than 5,000 people gathered in Charleston to support the hospital workers on strike. Mary Moultrie, a leader of the strike, led the march with Ralph and Juanita Abernathy of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Courtesy of Richland Library
Charleston Hospital Workers’ Strike
The Charleston Hospital Workers’ Strike began on March 20, 1969. However, it was the result of months of build-up, tension, and conversations. Black women were not hired to positions of authority in the hospitals, and were instead hired to positions in which they were overqualified and underpaid. White nursing staff often treated them poorly, even though they relied on Black nursing staff to train nursing students. In December 1967, five Black nurses’ aides and practical nurses left the hospital after White nurses insisted that they ignore important aspects of patient care and safety. Black newspapers in Charleston and the Sea Islands began calling for hospital workers to unionize.
March 17, 1969 This document from Governor Robert McNair’s papers lists the 12 workers, their job titles, their gender, and their hourly wage. $1.33/hour would be equal to approximately $10.76/ hour in 2023. Courtesy of South Carolina Political Collections
1969 Mary Moultrie was a nurse from Charleston. After high school, she left Charleston for New York, where she found a job as a nursing assistant and became an LPN. After her mother became ill, she returned to Charleston, but was only able to find a job as a nurse’s aide that paid her only a fraction of what she had been making as an LPN with much more work. After the five Black women walked out of their hospital jobs, Mary Moultrie and others began seriously discussing the need to unionize. She became a leader in the Charleston Hospital Workers’ Strike. Courtesy of Moving Image Research Collections
1969 While the strike was started and led by hospital workers, it quickly grew to symbolize the frustrations of other disgruntled and marginalized workers in Charleston and beyond. Courtesy of South Carolina Political Collections
April 25-30, 1969 During the Charleston Hospital Workers’ Strike, many people picketed and marched. People like Ralph Abernathy and Coretta Scott King came to Charleston to show their support for the hospital workers. Some demonstrators were arrested. Courtesy of Moving Image Research Collections
April 25, 1969 On April 25, 1969, South Carolina Governor Robert McNair ordered the National Guard to intervene in the strikes, arresting multiple people.
May 8, 1969 Ralph Abernathy arrives in Columbia and is interviewed about the goals and duration of the Charleston Hospital Workers’ Strike. Courtesy of Moving Image Research Collections
April 1969 While in Charleston for the Hospital Workers’ Strike, Coretta Scott King gave a speech in support of the striking hospital workers. Courtesy of Moving Image Research Collections
This document from Governor Robert McNair’s papers lists the 12 workers, their job titles, their gender, and their hourly wage. $1.33/hour would be equal to approximately $10.76/ hour in 2023. Mary Moultrie, the fourth name on the list, was one of the leaders of the Charleston Hospital Workers’ Strike. In December 1967, five Black women who worked at the hospital walked off the job in response to continuing mistreatment and careless behavior by White nursing staff. On March 17, 1969, Moultrie and 11 of her colleagues were fired after conversations with the hospital stalled. This was the spark that set the strike ablaze.
Courtesy of South Carolina Political Collections
While the strike was started and led by hospital workers, it quickly grew to symbolize the frustrations of other disgruntled and marginalized workers in Charleston and beyond. Activists organized boycotts and other types of action. Strikers relied on support from family, friends, community organizations, Local 1199, the Drug and Hospital Employees Union, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). While Charleston hospitals did not honor all the goals of the strikers, the strike did result in better conditions for workers.
Courtesy of South Carolina Political Collections
On April 25, 1969, South Carolina Governor Robert McNair ordered the National Guard to intervene in the strikes, arresting multiple people.
“After all, $1.30 is not a wage; it is an insult.”
Other Parts of the Struggle for Economic Rights
While the Charleston Hospital Workers’ Strike of 1969 may be the best-known push for workers’ and economic rights, South Carolina’s civil rights activists knew that the fight for equality was not a one-time event, but an ongoing struggle.
During the latter part of the 1960s, the NAACP and other civil rights organizations shifted their emphasis toward economic rights. In South Carolina, people like Rev. J. Herbert Nelson, Rev. Isaiah DeQuincey Newman, and attorney Matthew Perry worked toward the goal of improving economic rights. Courtesy of South Carolina Political Collections
1939 In this picture, Levi Byrd (seated, fourth from left) is pictured with the Chesterfield County Hunger Committee of the NAACP. Civil rights activists worked toward improving the daily lives of African Americans, socially, educationally, politically, and economically. Courtesy of South Carolina Political Collections
May 27, 1963 Bernard Moore wrote to Isaiah DeQuincey Newman about a protest against a construction company that would not hire African Americans. Courtesy of South Carolina Political Collections
During the latter part of the 1960s, the NAACP and other civil rights organizations shifted their emphasis toward economic rights. Martin Luther King, Jr., prior to his death, made poverty his primary cause, leading the Poor People’s March on Washington in 1968. In South Carolina, people like Rev. J. Herbert Nelson, Rev. Isaiah DeQuincey Newman, and attorney Matthew Perry worked toward the goal of improving economic rights.
Courtesy of South Carolina Political Collections
In this picture, Levi Byrd (seated, fourth from left) is pictured with the Chesterfield County Hunger Committee of the NAACP. Civil rights activists worked toward improving the daily lives of African Americans, socially, educationally, politically, and economically. Byrd revived South Carolina’s NAACP presence by organizing an NAACP branch in Chesterfield County in 1939 and spearheading the development of the South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP.
Courtesy of South Carolina Political Collections
In May 1963, Bernard Moore wrote to Isaiah DeQuincey Newman about a protest against a construction company that would not hire African Americans.
Courtesy of South Carolina Political Collections