Today in Labor History May 6, 400 black women walk off the job & WPA established by FDR

[Omaha Steve]

May 6


Works Projects Administration (WPA) established, provided work opportunities for millions during the Great Depression - 1935

And this: May 6, 1935
With the country sunk in the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 7034 and appropriated $4.8 billion for the Works Progress Administration. The WPA put millions of Americans to work constructing buildings, painting murals to decorate them and performing plays for audiences that had never before seen a dramatic production. In the process, many were saved from poverty and starvation.

400 black women working as tobacco stemmers walk off the job in a spontaneous revolt against poor working conditions and a $3 weekly wage at the Vaughan Co. in Richmond, Va. - 1937

Labor history found here: http://www.unionist.com/today-in-labor-history & here: http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?history_9_05_06_2010