The murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020 shook the nation. It set off a series of protests in cities across the country and around the world. The death of Floyd, an unarmed Black man, also led to the creation of a new constituency group at AFGE – AFGE B.L.A.C.K.
Following Floyd’s death, AFGE Y.O.U.N.G. leadership believed our union should have a committee that addressed issues impacting our Black members and served as a space for them to be heard. The Y.O.U.N.G. Committee and the Human Rights Committee subsequently put forth a resolution establishing AFGE B.L.A.C.K., which stands for Black Leaders Advancing Change and Knowledge, under the Women’s and Fair Practices Departments. The resolution was approved by the AFGE National Executive Council in June 2021.
We sat down with AFGE B.L.A.C.K. Chair Kendrick Roberson, who gave us a quick update on the membership program, activities, and goals.
AFGE: Can you tell us about the program – how it came to be and what it has been up to?
KR: AFGE B.L.A.C.K. was created in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd. I was the chair of the Y.O.U.N.G. committee. Tory White was the co-chair, and she said ‘hey it’s important that we have a committee that can address these issues as they come out because we are unionists. We represent working families.’ So, there are big community pieces to what we do as well.
Throughout many of the civil right movements in the past that gave the greatest advancement not just for Black folks but for all people and women as well have been labor fights. For example, the March on Washington from 1963, we always think about that march but the full name of it is the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. And so, it was a labor march – one of the biggest advancements in civil rights history, so that’s where we kind of get our purpose. We try to lift up the issues that are disproportionally impacting Black people and Black government workers in our federation. And we believe by doing that we increase solidarity because we would be able to uplift everyone.
The prime example of that is an event that we did just this January. We had an event where we had AFGE attorneys talk about two issues of discrimination that disproportionally impact Black folks in our federation and that would be non-selection cases [promotion and hiring] and termination. Even though non-selection and termination are disproportionally impacting Black folks, it’s still impacting everyone.
We also had a webinar on how to be a B.L.A.C.K. coordinator. We have Y.O.U.N.G. coordinators but starting this year we have B.L.A.C.K. coordinators.
AFGE: What kind of activities do our members want to be involved in and how do we gauge their interest?
KR: We sent out surveys to find out what issues that they wanted us to talk about and what kind of events that they wanted us to have. One of the things that they wanted to have is the attorneys explain how to deal with these certain types of discrimination that were mostly impacting Black folks and they even, in the surveys, chose which were the ones most impactful and those were the ones that we gotta talk about in that event. The survey was sent out in the fall of 2021. The idea was put on by the vice chair of the constituency group, Sheria Smith. We had done a survey similar to this for PRIDE already. She brought some new ideas to the table as to how we could make the survey better.
AFGE: What is your goal for this year?
KR: We’ve already achieved one of our goals for this year. One of our goals for this year is to get that training out, which was the training to make sure that we’re meeting the needs of the people in our member-driven events. Outside of that we have our Black History Month events, Juneteenth event, and we want to send out another survey. It’s been two years. Things have changed, we have a different environment that we’re dealing with politically and legislatively. We want to make sure that we’re staying abreast of what our members are actually dealing with right now.
AFGE: This year is an election year. Is AFGE B.L.A.C.K. participating in any election-related activity?
KR: We’re going to come together as a committee specifically to designate some of the actions that we want to put on our agenda. We know this is an election year and the primaries are going to be over soon and we’re going to have our two presidential candidates that are going to be very important to ensure that Black voters are aware of what’s important as far as their labor’s concern and which candidates are best for labor. That also means that going into all districts whether Republican and Democratic or otherwise to see what the candidates are actually thinking around our issues. We’re gonna make sure that we’re not turning a blind eye to certain districts if we feel like they’re safe for one party because it’s not so much about the party – it’s about the person and their position. We want to make sure that our issues get addressed and our federation’s issues get addressed by choosing the best candidates.
AFGE: If people want to join AFGE B.L.A.C.K., how do they go about it?
KR: Our meetings are open to anyone. The group is not just for Black members. Anyone can join. Anybody can just show up. A lot of folks might have Black members at their local but don’t know the issues that are disproportionally impacting them or don’t know how to fight those issues that are impacting them, so it’s imperative that they come to find out that information. Everybody can take that information back to their locals no matter what color or race they are. So, they’re open, every third Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. EST. They are virtual meetings on Zoom.
AFGE: Since the murder of George Floyd and the creation of AFGE B.L.A.C.K., are things improving in your opinion?
KR: I think in the federation things are definitely improving. I think people are very happy to have a space where they can talk about these issues much more openly that are disproportionally impacting them. I think they feel like they have a place to be heard and that’s for all the constituency groups. Just an example, APOWER, a lot of members of the Asian Pacific diaspora came out and talked about how they were being targeted because of the Covid pandemic and all of the hate that was coming their way and how we needed to have a strong stance against that hate. Now that you have a whole constituency group within AFGE that could come out and make those requests. Similarly with B.L.A.C.K. I feel like a lot of people feel like they have a space to be heard, and even with our survey, what they talked about is what we are actually doing because we are a member-driven constituency group.
AFGE’s Black History Month programming
February is Black History Month. This year WFP and AFGE B.L.A.C.K., have planned events throughout the month of February to celebrate our union siblings. We had a diversity workshop on Feb. 14 where all AFGE constituency groups outlined their importance to the work of our federation. On Feb. 21, we hosted a virtual overview of AFGE B.L.A.C.K. during its monthly meeting. There are other events planned the rest of the month. Details are below. Join us!
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