Each year on October 14, AFGE celebrates Augusta Y. Thomas Day – a day dedicated to community service and reflection of the life and work of a true champion who spent her life fighting for the civil rights, workers’ rights, and human rights of all people.
As a civil rights leader and activist, who sat so we could stand, Ms. Augusta was honored by the International Civil Rights Museum and Center with the Sit-In Participants Award for her actions during the 1960 Greensboro Sit-Ins and work during the civil rights movement.
Ms. Augusta, who passed away in 2018, was instrumental in shaping the future and policies of our union. Together with a group of AFGE staffers and members, Ms. Augusta helped create Women’s Affairs Department in 1974, which was later merged with Fair Practices Department and became WFP.
Earlier this year AFGE etched Ms. Augusta’s AFGE legacy in stone as we dedicated a memorial plague to her, our union’s beloved national vice president emeritus for Women’s and Fair Practices Departments.
Ms. Augusta’s tireless devotion to the civil rights movement and labor movement is best reflected when she stated “The future of working people hangs in the balance right now... We must stand until we are all equals, no matter our race, no matter our gender, no matter our class.”
On Augusta Y. Thomas Day and every day, we encourage AFGE staff, members, activists, and leaders to not only remember Ms. Augusta, but to continue her legacy and fight for those who cannot fight for themselves.
This year, in an effort to celebrate August Y. Thomas Day and in honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we are challenging our AFGE Leaders and Members to volunteer your time, your services, or to make some form of a donation to a local Domestic Violence Center within your local community. We want to ensure that as a labor union we continue to help those who cannot help themselves and give a voice to the voiceless.
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