Black History Month 2025
As we have approached the end of February, Black History Month, I am writing in a new part of our website titled “Insights and Reflections.” Here I hope viewpoints can be expressed that do not violate the Harvard Institutional Voice Principles. One might think that there is safety in history–after all, it is in the past. But history is often contested and contains absences. It was in response to such omissions that historian Carter Woodson established Negro History Week in 1926. Fifty years later, February was proclaimed Black History Month for the first time by a U.S. President. This year, Black History Month was once again declared by the current President, who noted as among remarkable Black Americans Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Thomas Sowell and Clarence Thomas. I would guess Douglass and Tubman probably would be perplexed by the selection of their 21st century companions, who are both Black conservatives.
This year’s theme is African Americans and Labor. As a Center committed to the idea that health and human rights are inextricably linked, we recall Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that reads “everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.” It is closely followed by Article 25, which enshrines the right to health. The connection between labor and health is obvious. People need livelihoods to survive. And dangers at work are a threat to health. Discriminatory practices that limit access to work, or failure to ensure safety at work, are violations of human rights. These injustices also have intergenerational consequences, as Black children have long borne the consequences of exploitative labor systems – whether through child labor or the economic marginalization of their families. Finally, the ability of working people to organize collectively to protect these rights, form unions and associations is protected.
It’s become standard to use Black History Month to lift up the outstanding individuals rather than reflect on the historical moments that produced them. There are many Black labor leaders whose contributions remain obscure. We should know them. Let me name a few: A. Philip Randolf, who would establish the Brotherhood Sleeping Car Porters and would be one of the key organizers of the 1963 March on Washington. Bayard Rustin, the subject of a recent film Rustin (now on streaming platforms) who was a member of the Executive Council of the AFL-CIO. He would say, “We are all one. And if we don’t know it, we will learn it the hard way.” You are less likely to have heard of Black women in the labor movement: Dorothy Bolden led the National Domestic Workers Union, for one. If you live in Boston, you have no doubt heard of Melnea Cass Blvd, but you may not know that the person for whom it is named. Melnea Cass led the drive to make Massachusetts the first state with minimum wage protections for domestic workers since the Great Depression. Or the radical Ferdinand Smith, who as the leader of the National Maritime Union was among the nation’s most powerful labor leaders until the Red Scare stripped many of their leadership roles in the labor movement.
A theme of African Americans and labor gives us an opportunity to reflect on the role of Blacks as workers. It was for their labor that Africans were enslaved and carried across the Atlantic to become unpaid workers in hereditary bondage. After emancipation, the Black Codes sought to continue enforced labor with a host of laws that applied only to the newly freed. Decades later, when domestic workers and agricultural workers were excluded from the Social Security Act of 1935 it served to exclude Black workers, especially in the South, as did other accompanying legislation. A generation later would come the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that barred employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin for employers with 15 or more employees. To place federal heft behind these requirements, an executive order, now rescinded, barred employment discrimination in the federal government and its contractors and a government agency was established ensure compliance with these protections. A generation earlier, Woodrow Wilson supported the active exclusion and removal of Black people from government service.
Today, Black unemployment generally remains twice as high as unemployment among whites and wages are also lower and many Black workers report experience of discrimination. Black History Month is not just a time for celebration but also for reflection on the systemic barriers that remain. As we honor the contributions of Black labor leaders and workers and remember the struggles they overcame, we must also commit to addressing inequities that continue to shape the labor and health landscape today. The fight for fair wages, safe working conditions, and equal opportunities is far from over, and the lessons of history remind us that progress is only possible through our collective efforts.
— Mary T. Bassett, MD, MPH
Director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights
[The above represents solely my own views and does not necessarily represent the views of the institution.]