Marvel Cooke, a Journalist for Working People

Marvel Cooke, a groundbreaking Black woman journalist who reported on labor in the 1940s and organized a union with the Newspaper Guild in the 1930s, is one of countless storytellers nearly forgotten by history because they were too radical. Lewis Raven Wallace brings us this report from The View from Somewhere: A Podcast About Journalism With A Purpose, which features stories of marginalized and oppressed people who have shaped journalism in the U.S. The podcast focuses on the troubled history of “objectivity” and how it has been used to gatekeep and exclude people of color, queer and trans people, and people organizing for their labor rights and communities.

Also this week: In June of 1990, hundreds of striking janitors and supporters peacefully demonstrated in Century City, Los Angeles. Police in riot gear attacked, injuring hundreds of people. The violent encounter -- which became known as The Battle of Century City -- would mark a turning point in the janitors' fight for justice. Check out the video here.

On this week’s Labor History in 2:00: Milwaukee transit workers join the ‘34 strike wave.

Produced by Chris Garlock. To contribute a labor history item, email laborhistorytoday@gmail.com

Labor History Today is produced by the Metro Washington Council’s Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University.

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