Feb. 7, 2011 - Pittsburgh City-County Building Thanks Mayor
Ravenstahl, Members of City Council and the City Parks and
Recreation Department. On behalf of President Leo Gerard,
Director John DeFazio and all retired and active members of the
Steelworkers Union, I wish to commend you on this exhibit which
does a magnificent job in telling the story of how a relatively
small group of struggling workers such as Raymond Henderson,
shaped not only the African-American community, but made an
impact around the country. It is a chapter of American history
that too few know about. But, it is a stark reminder of what
life was like for African-Americans in this country, up until
the last few decades. The exhibit is also a painful reminder of
the in equity of the seniority system within the steel
companies. A system that left a damaging legacy of occupational
segregation. Denial of equal employment opportunities, despite
the fact that this system condemned Black Steelworkers to labor
a lifetime in the most dangerous and m