Last weekend I took part briefly in the Northeast regional Conference of the A. Philip Randolph Institute (https://www.apri.org/), the organization of African-American trade unionists-I happen to be recording Secretary of the Philadelphia chapter. I met once again Norman Hill President emeritus of APRI, and for sale were copies of his memoir with his wife and comrade Velma, Climbing The Rough Side Of The Mountain (2023; New York, Regalo Press). I had my copy ready for Norman to sign-Velma, for helth resons could not arrive-and he placed his autograph on the copy, with the words, “Keep on.”
Any worthy struggle and movement for freedom-Labor, African-American civil rights, LGBTQ+ rights, feminism, what have you-has been in history a long, hard fight, going on for generations, one generation of activists picking up the banner from the next one, each generation learning from each other, the youngsters learing from the elders and vice-versa. Norman and Velma Hill have been in the fight for Labor and Civil Rights for decades, learning from and associating with such titans as A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, and Martin Luther King Jr. I pray to God I’ve learned some things from those that came before me, and have shown me the way to serve the Cause, so I can passit on to the young’ins who will come after me.
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