What do we want? ERA!

When do we want it? NOW!

But there was a difference here. Up and down the line of march, contingents from trade unions predominated: Tobacco Workers, Communications Workers of America (CWA), several locals of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

Farmers in bright red and blue jackets of the American Agricultural Movement urged support for the farmers’ strike and the ERA.

The Richmond demonstration was organized by Labor for Equal Rights Now (LERN), a coalition of trade unionists called together by locals of the Meat Cutters union. It was the first such labor-initiated ERA demonstration--a powerful example of how trade unions can help take the lead in the figWht for women’s rights.

LERN won endorsements of the Virginia AFL-CIO. AFSCME and the Teamsters union put out leaflets for the rally. The United Auto Workers organized pro-ERA speakers for its local meetings.

Joyce Miller, president of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), pointed out, "The same people who oppose the Equal Rights Amendment also oppose the labor movement and labor’s goals."  
 
February 2, 1953
The 5–4 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals Jan. 22 upholding the refusal of Washington, D.C., restaurants to serve Negroes again underlines the need for federal action to rid the nation’s capital of its notorious Jim Crow.

The test case against restaurant Jim Crow arose from the refusal of a John R. Thompson restaurant to serve a group of Negroes in 1950. The suit against the management was based on laws passed in 1872 and 1873 which forbid discrimination in the capital’s restaurants.

The majority opinion, written by Chief Judge Harold M Stevens, argued in one breath that the anti-discrimination laws were unenforceable from the beginning and had really been repealed in 1901, and in the next breath that D.C. municipal authorities couldn’t enforce these laws now because they hadn’t been enforced for 78 years.

Negro and labor leaders are demanding that Eisenhower fulfill his campaign promise to end segregation in Washington, D.C. This was the pledge Eisenhower made to cover his intimacy with the Dixiecrats and the nakedness of the GOP platform on FEPC. Washington was chosen by the Republican promisers because, in theory, federal action against Jim Crow there would not interfere with "states’ rights."

In fact, however, northern reactionaries and southern white supremacists will oppose the end of segregation in Washington as strongly as anywhere else.  
 
 
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