Labor Spotlight- Bill Lucy

William (Bill) Lucy (November 26, 1933 - ) has been at the forefront of the labor movement in America and around the world for over 50 years, now. During his time as International Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Lucy helped the union grow from 200,000 to over 1 million members in 3,500 local unions nationwide. He also helped define the role of African Americans in the labor unions when he co-founded the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) in 1972.

Lucy became a member of AFSCME Local 1675 in 1956 at the age of twenty-three and then was elected its president in 1965 at the age of thirty-two. In 1968, at the age of thirty-five, Lucy worked on the historic Memphis sanitation workers’ strike. He coined the famous slogan, “I Am A Man!” that became the rallying call for the Memphis strikers. In the tumultuous aftermath of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination during the Memphis sanitation workers’ strike, Lucy helped maintain the labor-civil rights-community coalition that sealed the workers’ eventual victory and became the model used throughout the nation.

Ebony magazine would go on to describe Lucy as one of “The 100 most Influential Black Americans.”

Lucy to this day lives out what his favorite quote would go on to say, ”It is better to be effective than right.”