Topic

Black History

NUHW Honors Black Change Makers

Our movement is rooted in the ongoing shared struggle for equal rights and full equality. And, our work will never be complete until we create an anti-racist healthcare system that fully supports caregivers and patients of color and provides all patients with culturally-responsive care.

NUHW would not exist without the hard work and sacrifices of Black and Brown members and the inspiration that we all draw from the civil rights leaders of the past and present. We honor the lives and the legacies of those who came before us and stand out among us, and we welcome you to support and get to know their work.

Derrick Palmer & Christian Smalls ProfilesJanuary 23, 2023 Christian Smalls and Derrick Palmer led a worker revolution at Amazon and ignited a nationwide wave of new organizing despite Amazon’s $4 million investment in union-busting tactics and attempts to stall their progress. 
James Baldwin ProfilesFebruary 28, 2022 Known for his direct yet poetic approach to debate, James Baldwin became a prominent voice in the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. His work is still heralded as some of the most forward-thinking of its time. 
Ijeoma Oluo ProfilesFebruary 25, 2022 Born into a bi-racial family, Ijeoma Oluo’s insightful writings about race, feminism, inequality, including her New York Times bestseller So You Want to Talk About Race, have made her a leading voice in today’s social justice debate. 
Phill Wilson ProfilesFebruary 19, 2022 Phill Wilson is an internationally-renowned Black AIDS/HIV activist and founder of the nation’s only HIV/AIDS think tank focused exclusively on Black people.
Patrisse Cullors ProfilesFebruary 15, 2022 When Patrisse Cullors helped begin #BlackLivesMatter as a hashtag in 2013, it sparked a national movement that would last for years to come. 
Shirley Ware ProfilesFebruary 14, 2022 From her early days as a vocational nurse, to the moment she became the first Black organizer at Local 250 in 1971, to her 1988 election as secretary treasurer at the nation’s second largest healthcare union — Shirley Ware knew how to organize. 
Edgar Daniel Nixon ProfilesFebruary 12, 2022 Edgar Nixon founded the Sleeping Car Porters union and organized the Alabama Voters League before joining with Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. to initiate the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 to protest segregation in the South.
Cat Brooks ProfilesFebruary 9, 2022 Cat Brooks’ activism against police violence has sparked the work of her Anti Police-Terror Project and the Justice Teams Network and has greatly advanced the conversation around police accountability.
Cori Bush ProfilesFebruary 8, 2022 Cori Bush is a lifelong activist and change agent. Most recently, in 2020, she became Missouri’s first Black congresswoman, advocating for progressive causes on an anti-violence platform.
Rosa Parks ProfilesFebruary 4, 2022 Rosa Parks was a Black civil rights activist whose act of civil disobedience helped launch the year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Stacey Abrams ProfilesFebruary 3, 2022 Stacey Abrams, former Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, is a voting rights activist whose efforts focus on ending voter suppression.
A. Philip Randolph ProfilesFebruary 2, 2022 Labor leader Asa Philip Randolph founded the nation’s first black labor union and helped pave the way for the passage of the Civil Rights Act.
Eloise Reese-Burns ProfilesFebruary 1, 2022 Eloise Reese-Burns tirelessly fought for justice as one of the longest-tenured health care workers in California and a member of NUHW’s executive board.
Mari Copeny aka “Little Miss Flint” ProfilesJanuary 31, 2022 Mari Copeny was just eight years old when she saw the impacts of Flint’s water crisis on her community, so she rallied a visit from President Obama.
Dr. Cornel West ProfilesJanuary 31, 2022 Dr. Cornel West is an American philosopher, intellectual, author, professor and activist who is widely credited with elevating conversations on race into the public discourse.
Bayard Rustin ProfilesJanuary 31, 2022 Bayard Rustin was an American civil rights leader, gay rights activist, and humanitarian who helped organize the 1961 Freedom Rides, the Montgomery Bus Boycott and more.