Black women’s work and organizing belong at the center of labor history. Hands That Built explores how they fought for better wages, safer conditions, and greater control over their working lives while confronting racial and gender discrimination.

This educational workbook follows Black women’s labor history from slavery through modern organizing, connecting individual experiences to the laws, institutions, and economic conditions that shaped their choices. Through historical lessons, case studies, and guided activities, learners examine how Black women organized within workplaces and communities, including when unions and other labor organizations excluded them.

What’s Inside

• Historical lessons tracing Black women’s labor and organizing across generations.

• Case studies, including the Atlanta Washerwomen’s Strike of 1881.

• Profiles of organizers, including Lucy Parsons and Claudia Jones.

• Discussion questions that encourage learners to evaluate historical evidence and develop their own interpretations.

• Analysis activities examining working conditions, exclusion, collective action, and institutional power.

• A pattern recognition framework to help learners make careful connections between historical struggles and present-day labor issues.

  
  

Learning Beyond Names and Dates

The workbook asks learners to consider who controlled working conditions, whose labor received recognition, and what options workers had when established institutions denied them support. It also examines the strategies Black women used to build collective power and the barriers that shaped what they could achieve.

These questions help learners understand labor history as a struggle over wages, rights, dignity, and decision-making, with Black women’s contributions fully in view.

Who It’s For

Designed for middle school, high school, and introductory college learning, this workbook supports classroom instruction, homeschool lessons, independent study, and community discussion. Educators and facilitators can select lessons and activities to suit their learners’ needs.

Product Details

• Format: Digital PDF download

• Delivery: Available to download after purchase

• Use: Print or view on a tablet

• Learning settings: Classroom, homeschool, group discussion, or independent study

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Explore the work, organizing, and leadership of Black women who helped shape the labor movement and expand the fight for workers’ rights.

This is a digital product. No physical item will be shipped.