I Am Somebody

In 1969, Black workers at the two public hospitals in Charleston, South Carolina were paid $1.35 and hour. That was five cents above the minimum wage, and the equivalent of $9.55 an hour fifty years later. They organized and went on strike.

This movie has just been added to the National Film Registry. From the beginning of unions in the United States, they had been dominated by White men, in part because the skilled trades were the first to organize, and in part because of old-fashioned ideas. With the 1960s being an era of civil rights movements and the increasing entry of women into the workplace, this was,a natural place for union activism to expand its reach and gain some progressive credits. Besides, it was the right thing to do.

Although much of the speechifying is content free boosterism, the basic message is clear enough: minimum wage was not enough to live on, and the only people likely to help you were in the same situation...and a few idealists.

It is the summer of '69 Charleston, South Carolina. Some 400 underpaid black female hospital staff try to unionize. Twelve got fired for the effort and that sets off a massive strike. The ladies and their supporters get manhandled by the police. It snowballs into a civil rights movement and a battle for human dignity. This is after the murders of the Kennedys and MLK. Coretta King makes a speech. The government even sends in the troops. History is often written in small little chapters and this is one of them. This documentary serves as a witness to those events. It is always great to have these materials for the future.

Here is a movie that will help compassionate people realize just how stratified our society is. Some people have to work like hell: ruin marriages, subsist on rice and beans for months and go to prison over and over.

All for a little thing called self-esteem (and 30 cents an hour). Still, its just the way things are. Take it or leave it, friends. Maybe one day people will all have the opportunity to care this much about something so simple.

Talk about an inspirational picture.

Plus, its short!

No reason to miss it.

I love stumbling upon documentaries like this about little known resistances and fights that have happened where the marginalized strike back. In "I Am Somebody" it was literally a strike. The hospital workers in local 1199 of Charleston, South Carolina went on strike for fair wages. What was the fair wage they were requesting you ask? Well, they were getting paid $1.30 an hour. I know that the date of their strike was 1969 so we can't compare that to today's wages, but here's the more important thing: the Black hospital workers were getting paid less than their white counterparts.

The hospital workers got the attention of Ralph Abernathy and Coretta Scott King who came to lend a hand. It was peaceful and it was effective. This little documentary is a simple, yet noble, attempt to bring their strike to the attention of many more.