{{Short description|American union organizer (1916–1950)}} '''Moranda Smith''' was a black labor organizer and unionist who served as the first regional director of Winston-Salem, North Carolina's Local 22 of the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural and Allied Workers of America (FTA-CIO) in the 1930 and 1940s.
== Career == Born of a sharecropping family in South Carolina, Smith led thousands of Winston-Salem workers to win $1,250,000 in back pay in the leaf houses and stemmeries. In 1943, after a Black worker fell dead at a Reynolds Tobacco Company plant, Smith, along with thousands of other Black women, participated in a spontaneous sit-down leading to a massive walkout forcing Reynolds to temporarily shut down.
Her leadership at the local 22 saw a 50% rise of minimum wages. The union also increased voter registration in the area, leading to the election of the first Black alderman in the South. Throughout her career as a unionist, Smith worked extensively, "openly defying" the Ku Klux Klan.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Contributions of Black Women to America Volume II|last = Davis|first = Marianna W.|publisher = Kenday Press, Inc.|year = 1982|location = Columbia, South Carolina|pages = 123, 124}}</ref>
== Personal life == Smith died in 1950 at the age of 34, "the strain of her activities seeming to be a major cause."<ref>{{Cite book|title = Black Women in White America|last = Lerner|first = Gerda|publisher = Pantheon Books|year = 1972|location = New York|pages = 257|author-link=Gerda Lerner}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Moranda}} Category:African-American trade unionists Category:20th-century African-American women Category:20th-century African-American people Category:American women trade unionists Category:Trade unionists from North Carolina Category:People from Winston-Salem, North Carolina Category:1910s births Category:1950 deaths Category:African-American women activists Category:20th-century American trade unionists {{US-activist-stub}}