Recognition For Bea Lumpkin

WHEREAS, Beatrice “Bea” Lumpkin began her career in the labor movement nearly 90 years ago with a factory job at age 14, and helped organize for the Metal and Machinery Workers Industrial Union, a part of the newly formed Congress of Industrial Organizations; and

WHEREAS, upon her college graduation, Bea Lumpkin became an organizer for the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America; and

WHEREAS, she and her second husband, Frank Lumpkin, who led the Wisconsin Steel Save Our Jobs Committee, moved to Gary, Ind., and she worked first as a journalist and later as a member of the United Steelworkers; and

WHEREAS, Bea Lumpkin took part in historic civil rights struggles in Chicago, marching with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Marquette Park, and working as an ally of the Black Panther Party; and

WHEREAS, she was a founding member of the Coalition of Labor Union Women in 1974, the year after Roe v. Wade confirmed a woman's constitutional right to an abortion; and

WHEREAS, she returned to school and became a math teacher both in Chicago Public Schools and at Malcolm X College, where she served as an inspiration to many students; and

WHEREAS, Bea Lumpkin has continued to maintain her activism as a retiree on many fronts, including the Chicago Teachers Union Retiree Committee, the Illinois Alliance for Retired Americans, and the Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees, where she has focused on intergenerational work with youth activists; and

WHEREAS, she has continued to expand her activism in new fields with such critical work as the Chicago Teachers Union Climate Justice Committee and its fight against metal scrap company General Iron:

RESOLVED, that the AFT will salute our sister Bea Lumpkin for her lifetime of tireless struggle on behalf of workers and other oppressed people and for a better world for all; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will designate Bea Lumpkin as the esteemed recipient of an AFT lifetime achievement award.