Our Story
The National Black Worker Center was founded in 2011 as a network of four Black Worker Centers that formed in response to the on-going jobs crisis afflicting the Black working class. Since then, it has expanded to include 11 Black Worker Centers across the United States.
Drawing from the experiences of immigrant-based worker centers as well as a long history of Black working class organizations of various types, the NBWC established itself as a home for advocacy, education, organizing and mobilization. Its particular focus has been on the need for good quality employment for all workers, but especially for Black workers. Rather than suggesting that the jobs crisis can be resolved through the production of an arbitrary set of jobs, the NBWC has identified the critical need for high wage and skilled employment to address the larger Depression-like conditions facing Black America.
NBWC is a Black worker power-building and worker’s rights advocacy organization that leads with militant joyfulness and Black movement culture. We reject white supremacy culture in movement-building work and lift up the reality that for Black people, seriousness and joy are not mutually exclusive.
Black workers are building a leader-full movement with the understanding that Black people have long been ready to be leaders of their own liberation. Our focus on leadership development capitalizes on a truth that researchers and social strategists are only now beginning to recognize.
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WE MUST NOT ACCEPT THE MYTH THAT SOME PEOPLE ARE LESS THAN US. TO DO SO DIMINISHES THEIR HUMANITY AND OURS!
–TANYA WALLACE-GOBERN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NBWC
A study on Black and Latinx girls and women implemented by Girls Leadership stated that, “Overall, girls of color were more likely to report that they seek out leadership opportunities compared to white girls.” Studies of Black workers have also seen similar results. The Building Movement Project found that people of color aspired to leadership positions more than their white colleagues and are even often overqualified for the positions; however, they were routinely undermined and discouraged by their colleagues.
NBWC’s work strives to provide fertile ground for Black workers, men and women, unemployed and under-employed to express the leadership skills and ambition that we already have. Our national labor movement is strengthened and emboldened by every Black worker leader that enters the struggle for fair working conditions. Strong Black leader-full activism destroys the systems that keep all workers in chains.
A study on Black and Latinx girls and women implemented by Girls Leadership stated that, “Overall, girls of color were more likely to report that they seek out leadership opportunities compared to white girls.” Studies of Black workers have also seen similar results. The Building Movement Project found that people of color aspired to leadership positions more than their white colleagues and are even often overqualified for the positions; however, they were routinely undermined and discouraged by their colleagues.
NBWC’s work strives to provide fertile ground for Black workers, men and women, unemployed and under-employed to express the leadership skills and ambition that we already have. Our national labor movement is strengthened and emboldened by every Black worker leader that enters the struggle for fair working conditions. Strong Black leader-full activism destroys the systems that keep all workers in chains.