As we celebrate Black History Month, we thought we'd take a look back at some of the women who have made history in the realm of fighting for the rights of working people. The battles they fought at the intersection of the rights of African Americans, women and working people should have made these women household names. Women continue to be at the forefront of battles for the rights of African Americans today, building on the work of these women and many others. Here is an introduction to a group of amazing women who did some amazing things.

"Our movement is made up of working people of all parties and ideologies," AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler told a crowd of more than 300 labor leaders and activists gathered at the AFL-CIO Northeast District Meeting in Silver Spring, Md. "What unites us is work and the desire for a better life. Improving the lives of union members and all working people must be our guiding light in politics."

The AFL-CIO brought allies and union leaders together yesterday with the aim of ending sexual harassment in the workplace. When working people join together in union, we can listen to each other, mobilize our co-workers, speak with a unified voice and fight together to win justice in the workplace.

The U.S. economy gained 200,000 jobs in January, and unemployment was unchanged at 4.1%, according to figures released this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Today, we are taking a moment of silence in honor of the two men, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, whose tragic deaths 50 years ago led to the Memphis sanitation strike and the historic involvement of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

As part of "I AM 2018," we are reposting the following article by historian Michael Honey, which originally ran on the AFL-CIO website 10 years ago. It tells the story of Cole and Walker and of King's involvement in the strike.