{{Short description|USA trade union activist}} {{Infobox person | name = Floria Pinkney | image = FloriaPinkney1926.png | alt = A young Black woman photographed mostly in shadows, wearing a dark dress with a strand of dark beads | caption = Floria Pinkney, from a 1926 publication | birth_date = 1903 | birth_place = Connecticut | education = Brockwood Labor College | occupation = Garment worker, union organizer, and activist }} thumb|263x263px|Floria Pinkney (fourth from right) pictured with classmates at Brookwood Labor College '''Floria Pinkney''' (1903 – after May 1984) was a Progressive Era Black female garment worker and union activist and leader from Brooklyn, New York. She was the first African-American woman to hold a leadership role as an organizer within the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU).<ref>{{Cite book|title=All Together Different: Yiddish Socialists, Garment Workers, and the Labor Roots of Multiculturalism|last=Katz|first=Daniel|publisher=NYU Press|year=2011|isbn=9780814763674|location=New York|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/alltogetherdiffe0000katz}}</ref> As a legacy dressmaker, Pinkney was involved in the garment industry throughout her life.
== Early life and education == thumb|Floria Pinkney pictured at Brookwood Labor College in 1926.|270x270px Pinkney's parents were both originally from Florida and they migrated to Connecticut at the turn of the century. Pinkney's mother was a self-employed dressmaker.<ref name="Gayle 2015">{{Cite book |last=Gayle |first=Janette Elice |title=Sewing change: Black dressmakers, garment workers and the struggle for rights in early twentieth century New York City |year=2015 |isbn=9781339097770 |location=Ann Arbor}}</ref> Pinkney was born in Connecticut in 1903. Shortly after Pinkney's birth, her then widowed mother moved the family to Brooklyn. Before working in the garment industry, Pinkney attended Manhattan Trade School for Girls. There, she was taught skills including sewing machine mechanics, sewing techniques, and basic academic skills like writing.<ref name="Wolcott-2020">{{Cite journal |last=Wolcott |first=Victoria W. |date=2020-09-01 |title=Networks of Resistance: Floria Pinkney and Labor Interracialism in Interwar America |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/709113 |journal=The Journal of African American History |language=en |volume=105 |issue=4 |pages=567–592 |doi=10.1086/709113 |s2cid=229355288 |issn=1548-1867|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In 1925, Pinkney received a scholarship to Brookwood Labor College, sponsored by the American Fund for Public Service (AFPS), commonly known as the Garland Fund, which supported radical political causes. She also received scholarship from the NAACP.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1925 |title=NAACP 16th Annual Report |journal=Brookwood Labor College Papers |volume=Series II, Box 44, Folder 2 }}</ref> The scholarship from AFPS gave Pinkney the ability to learn more about organizing and later on apply it to helping black workers succeed in the garment industry and fight prejudice.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1925-12-17|title=Colored Students Win Scholarships|pages=2|work=The Buffalo American|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94436777/colored-students-win-scholarships/|access-date=2022-02-07|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Her scholarship at Brookwood was extended two years due to her academic success, and Pinkney was recognized as a class speaker at graduation.<ref name="Gayle 2015" /> Upon graduating, Pinkney become the first Black woman to graduate from Brookwood Labor College.<ref name="Pinkey Denmark">{{Cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s)/no by-line.--> |title=Wenonah Bond, Floria Pinkney, Go to Denmark |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=33996166&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjQwODYzMTM4LCJpYXQiOjE2MTczMDM5MDUsImV4cCI6MTYxNzM5MDMwNX0.z3lvi5kL0lynAA4SndjFEeZLMuFTlQvFrHtnWouGDvk |work=The New York Age |date=12 April 1930 |access-date=1 April 2020}}</ref> Pinkney also studied at the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers, where she was one of the first five Black students to be admitted<ref name="Dullea-1984" /> and the International People’s College in Denmark.<ref name="Wolcott-2020" /> In 1930, Pinkney won an award from the New York School of Social Work to do a 6 month Fellowship at the University of Copenhagen. This fellowship focused on work that was being done in Denmark in adult education and social organization.<ref name="Pinkey Denmark" />
In 1984, Pinkney attended a reunion of the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers.<ref name="Dullea-1984">{{Cite news|last=Dullea|first=Georgia|date=1984-06-24|title=Reunion at Bryn Mawr: Workers of 30's Return|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/24/style/reunion-at-bryn-mawr-workers-of-30-s-return.html|access-date=2022-02-07|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
== Activism == Pinkney joined the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) in the 1920s and was quickly identified as a promising leader. She worked for several years before attending Brockwood Labor College. After graduating, she returned to the industry she was quickly appointed to into leadership positions.<ref name="Gayle 2015" /> Among other roles, Pinkney served as Special Organizer for ILGWU in 1929.<ref>{{Cite news |title=NEGRO GROUP PLAN TO AID DRESS STRIKE; Workers Are to Be Enrolled in Union at Headquarters in Urban League. |language=en |work=The New York Times |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1929/12/18/92038090.html?pageNumber=55 |access-date=2023-04-23}}</ref> Pinkney was instrumental in the ILGWU's September 1929 drive to enroll black garment workers. She spoke alongside A. Philip Randolph, who lead the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and ILGWU Vice President Julius Hochman at St. Luke's in Harlem.<ref name="Gayle 2015" /> Randolph endorsed Pinkney as an organizer for the ILGWU, calling her "a capable young woman".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g1_NLnQi1osC&q=pinkney|title=Marching Together: Women of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters|last=Chateauvert|first=Melinda|date=1997|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=9780252066368|language=en}}</ref> She worked beyond the garment district and was active in both the Harlem and Brooklyn communities.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Morgan|first=Charlotte T.|date=Jan 31, 1984|title=Finding a Way Out: Adult Education in Harlem During the Great Depression|journal=Afro-Americans in New York Life and History|volume=8|id={{ProQuest|219950847}}}}</ref>
Pinkney was on the board of managers for the Ashland Place YWCA in Brooklyn.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1930-11-15|title=Ashland Place YWCA Starts Budget Campaign|pages=10|work=The New York Age|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94436994/ashland-place-ywca-starts-budget/|access-date=2022-02-07|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> She led YWCA branch’s Industrial Assembly<ref name="Wolcott-2020" /> and represented the Ashland Place Y at a regional conference in Trenton in 1926.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1926-02-27|title=Miss Floria Pinkney to Represent Ashland Place Y at Industrial Conference|pages=10|work=The New York Age|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94437171/miss-floria-pinkney-to-represent/|access-date=2022-02-07|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> She attended the 1930 YWCA Industrial Assemblies Convention in Detroit, where she was selected to represent the Industrial Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SLOOBwFeMxsC&q=pinkney|title=Christian Sisterhood, Race Relations, and the YWCA, 1906-46|last=Robertson|first=Nancy Marie|date=2007|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=9780252031939|language=en}}</ref>
Pinkney continued her advocacy work through the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL), specifically working with the Laundry Workers Union.<ref name="Wolcott-2020" />
In 1933, she was barred from the Cairo Hotel in Washington, D.C., and other delegates to the same labor conference marched in protest.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1933-05-27|title=Jim Crow in Washington|pages=10|work=The Pittsburgh Courier|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/37174708/the-pittsburgh-courier/|access-date=2022-02-07|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Also in 1933, Congress passed NIRA, which led to a large increase in union membership, because of more protection of employee rights, and ultimately giving unions more power and visibility.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gayle |first=Janette |date=October 19, 2016 |title="Invaders": Black Ladies of the ILGWU and the Emergence of the Early Civil Rights Movement in New York City |url=https://www.gothamcenter.org/blog/invaders-black-ladies-of-the-ilgwu-and-the-emergence-of-the-early-civil-rights-movement-in-new-york-city |access-date=2023-04-23 |website=The Gotham Center for New York City History |language=en-US}}</ref> In 1935, she was appointed to teach worker education classes at the Harlem YWCA and Utopia Neighborhood House.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1935-07-06|title=FERA Opens First Workers Educational Class at YW|pages=10|work=The New York Age|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94437443/fera-opens-first-workers-educational/|access-date=2022-02-07|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
Though known for her radical ideals, Pinkney differed from many of her peers as she also embraced labor interracialism.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Blain |first=Keisha N. |title=Set the world on fire : black nationalist women and the global struggle for freedom |date=2018 |isbn=978-0-8122-4988-0 |location=Philadelphia |oclc=990257593}}</ref> For example, her involvement with YWCA, a widely segregated organization. Though Pinkney existed in this segregated space, she took full advantage of her leadership roles and used her organizing abilities to build up the black community and union members to gain power and respect and from White women leaders.
== References == {{Reflist|35em}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pinkney, Floria}} Category:Created via preloaddraft Category:African-American trade unionists Category:American women trade unionists Category:1903 births Category:Year of death missing Category:Place of death missing Category:International Ladies Garment Workers Union leaders Category:Trade unionists from New York (state) Category:Activists from Brooklyn Category:Brookwood Labor College alumni Category:20th-century African-American people Category:20th-century African-American women