On this day in 1915, Victoria “Vicki” Ama Garvin was born. A labor leader and internationalist, committed to equal rights for women and Black liberation, Garvin was a key strategist, mentor, and leader in social movements across three continents. Garvin joined her first picket line at a “Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work” protest fighting to gain employment for Black workers in Harlem. Throughout her 60-year political career, Garvin was stalwart in her defense of Black women workers.

December 13th marks the birth and the death of the great orator, organizer, and revolutionary, Ella Baker. Baker’s life was dedicated to the liberation of poor and oppressed people and she understood that to change the whole system, the people need to organize! Here she is in 1974 at a Puerto Rico Solidarity Rally.