Dr. William Lucy died at the age of 90 on Sept. 25, 2024.
Born in Memphis, TN, on Nov. 26, 1933, Lucy was considered one of the most influential people in the labor movement. Lucy was an American trade union leader who spent his life fighting for the dignity and rights of African American laborers.
“Bill Lucy was a courageous labor leader who dedicated his life bending the arc of history toward justice,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “No matter the title or the place, he worked tirelessly to advance civil rights and labor rights for all Americans, changing the course of history and redeeming the soul of America.”
Lucy had intended to study civil engineering at the University of California at Berkeley but instead focused his time and energy on advocating for the rights of Black workers. He went on to make global impacts in the world of labor and economic justice, including coining the mantra “I Am a Man,” which became the rallying cry African Americans were fighting for equality in the 1968 Memphis sanitation workers’ strike, according to a press release.
He also founded and was president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, which was committed to addressing the needs of African Americans and other minority group laborers. Lucy also served as president of Local 1675, Contra Costa County workers, before being elected Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in 1972.
In 2012, after 38 years of service, Lucy retired from that position.
“From our inception as an organization, Bill Lucy was present and influential,” Dr. Iva Carruthers, General Secretary of Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, Inc., said in a statement.
“Not only did he support our activism, but he made a special commitment to teaching and encouraging young activists, theologians and advocates on the need for their ideas, involvement and voices in the work for economic justice.”
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