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Business & Labor
Founders and financiers on one side, organizers and union leaders on the other — and the fights between them.
Role:
Any
Philanthropist 42
Founder 36
Executive 21
Industrialist 16
Investor 16
Financier 15
Labor Organizer 15
Activist 9
Broadcaster 4
Designer 4
9 people
Eugene V. Debs 1855–1926Labor & Workers' MovementsSocialist Party leader who ran for president five times from prison and championed labor rights.
Frances Perkins 1880–1965Labor & Workers' MovementsFirst woman in a presidential cabinet and labor secretary who helped create Social Security, minimum-wage, and workplace protections.
Madam C. J. Walker 1867–1919Business, Finance & IndustryEntrepreneur who built a major Black hair-care company and used her wealth for philanthropy and civil-rights causes.
Mother Jones 1837–1930Labor & Workers' MovementsOrganizer whose militant campaigns for miners and against child labor made her an icon of American labor.
Bill Haywood 1869–1928Labor & Workers' MovementsCo-founded the Industrial Workers of the World and led major mining and textile strikes.
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn 1890–1964Labor & Workers' MovementsOrganized IWW strikes and helped found the American Civil Liberties Union.
Lucy Parsons 1851–1942Labor & Workers' MovementsRadical labor organizer and writer who advocated for workers, free speech, and racial and gender equality over seven decades.
Rose Schneiderman 1882–1972Labor & Workers' MovementsLabor organizer who championed women workers, workplace safety, and social reforms later incorporated into the New Deal.Larry Itliong 1913–1977Labor & Workers' MovementsFilipino American labor leader whose organizing initiated the Delano grape strike and helped build the United Farm Workers.