This dissertation uses archival documents, newspapers, and previously collected oral histories to construct a history of post-World War II black working-class activism in Charleston, South Carolina. I examine the women involved in one of the lesser-known events of the civil rights and black power movements, the Charleston Hospital Workers’ Strike of 1969. These women, primarily working-class and black, were central to the success of the 113-day strike. As union leaders, strikers, soup-kitchen volunteers, and national fundraisers, black women ensured the viability of the strike. Without their participation in every facet of the strike, the push for better wages, working conditions, and a union would not have had a chance to succeed. While scholarship on the intersection of labor and civil rights focuses on Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign, specifically the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike, the Charleston Strike has lingered in the background. This study argues that black women were central to the success of the Charleston strike and that their leadership in the Charleston events was unique. The Charleston strike was a women’s movement not only because over ninety percent of the participants were women, but also because women led the strike on the local and national stages.
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