CWA President Shelton Joined Celebration of 50th Anniversary of Civil Rights Institute

CWA President Chris Shelton helped celebrate, last week, the 50th anniversary of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, named for the civil rights leader who fought for workers' rights and civil rights across America. A. Philip Randolph was a union organizer who became president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. He and another civil rights giant, Bayard Rustin, founded APRI in 1965.

"We must end structural racism, and its ugly consequences, to achieve social justice in our country," Shelton said in a well-received speech addressing APRI's 46th National Education Conference in Savannah, GA, on Friday.

"And today, just as 50 years ago, we must rededicate ourselves to building a movement to secure our freedom," he continued. "This begins with a freedom from want ‒ a decent standard of living – a union job, and the ability for our children to do better than we did. It means democratic freedoms – our right to vote and our right to have a truly participatory democracy by and for the people, not a democracy by and for the corporations and big money interests."

Read the rest of his speech here.