Woman's History Month: Velma Hopkins

Velma Hopkins helped mobilize 10,000 workers into the streets of Winston-Salem, NC, as part of an attempt to bring unions to R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. The union, called Local 22 of the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural and Allied Workers of America-CIO, was integrated and led primarily by African American women. They pushed the boundaries of economic, racial and gender equality.

In the 1940s, they organized a labor campaign and a strike for better working conditions, pay, and civil rights. It was the only time in the history of Reynolds Tobacco that it had a union. Before Local 22 faced set-backs from red-baiting and the power of Reynolds’ anti-unionism, it gained national attention for its vision of an equal society. This vision garnered the scrutiny of powerful enemies such as Richard Nixon and captured the attention of allies such as actor Paul Robeson and songwriter Woody Guthrie. Although Local 22 ultimately failed to slay the giant, the union influenced a generation of civil rights activists.

This labor and racial rights activist played a pivotal role in the 1943 strike at Plant No. 65 of RJ Reynolds Co., the largest tobacco manufacturing facility in the world at the time, and helped found the Local 22 of the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural and Allied Workers of America-CIO labor union.

Source: https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/women-in-labor-history/#Velma_Hopkins