Isaac Myers

Isaac Myers was honored in 2015. He was born in 1835 to free black parents in Maryland, which was still a slave state at the time. He received his early education from a local clergyman since the state of Maryland did not provide public education for black children at that time. At 16, he was sent to be an apprentice to James Jackson, a prominent black ship caulker in Baltimore. Within 4 years, Mr. Myers was supervising the caulking of all the clipper ships in Baltimore harbor.

During the Civil War, Isaac worked as a porter and shipping clerk. When the war ended, Myers attempted to return to ship caulking in Baltimore harbor, but was blocked from doing so by white ship caulkers working in the area. To overcome this obstacle, Isaac created a union that would allow for the employment of black ship caulkers. The Colored Caulkers Trade Union Society was formed. In addition to the formation of the union, they would also create their own shipyard and railroad company with the help of funds from local black residents in the Baltimore area. They named this new cooperative company the Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company. Within a few months, this cooperative employed 300 black and white shipyard workers and held several government contracts. The success also sparked other black shipyard laborers to unionize in other seaports. This also caught the attention of the National Labor Union, the largest organization of its kind at the time. In 1869 the NLU invited the Colored Caulkers Trade Union Society to its Philadelphia convention where they stated they would welcome Black unions into its group.

At this time, Myers was elected as the President of the Colored National Labor Union, again, the first of its kind in US history. Myers encourages black workers to join union and fully expected the white unions to accept them but learned they wouldn’t do so until the black union members stopped supporting the Republican Party and join the Labor Reform Party. The Black union members, including Myers, refused to drop the Republican Party. This resulted in the NLU not inviting the Colored National Labor Union to join the National Labor Union. With no large supporters of the Colored National Labor Union, it dissolved in 1871. Although Black American workers proved vital to the United States, it was not until the 1940s with the start of World War II that the federal government supported black laborers with the creation of the Fair Employment Practices Commission.

Myers work didn’t end with the dissolving of the CLNU. He was still organizing groups as well including the Maryland Colored State Industrial Fair Association where he was the President, the Colored Business Men’s Association of Baltimore, the Colored Building and Loan Association and the Aged Ministers Home of the AME Church. He also wrote Mason’s Digest. All of you are also supporting his legacy whether it’s with the donations given to support scholarships or the hard work cadets and student put into their education. With that we know his efforts were not in vain but are still very necessary.