The students will also march with those who don't have great titles or the blessings of a college education, but have figured it out. Low-wage black workers from places like New Haven, Connecticut and Milwaukee, Wisconsin are marching because they know their economic futures rely on a fair playing field for all workers.
This requires comprehensive immigration reform that makes undocumented workers legal residents so they can join with black, white, Asian, and Latino workers to bargain fairly for wages, organize unions, and stand up for basic workplace protections. The simple dignity of a hard day's work for a fair day's pay in our shared American journey has built not just a country, but bridges between communities.
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Sam Fulwood is a Senior Fellow at American Progress, where he
analyzes the influence of national politics and domestic policies on
communities of color across the United States.
Fulwood is the author of two books, Waking from the Dream: My Life in the Black Middle Class (Anchor, 1996) and Full of It: Strong Words and Fresh Thinking for Cleveland (Gray & Company, 2004). Prior to joining the Center, Sam was a metro columnist at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio, the last stop in a nearly three-decade journalism career that featured posts at several metropolitan newspapers. During the 1990s, he was a national correspondent in the Washington bureau of Los Angeles Times, where he created a national race-relations beat and contributed to the paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Los Angeles riots in 1992.
Henry Fernandez is a Senior Fellow at American Progress focusing on state and municipal policy.
Fernandez has worked broadly in local government, including as economic development administrator for New Haven, Connecticut where he oversaw the city's seven development departments as well as the Port Authority, Development Commission, and Redevelopment Agency. He led downtown and neighborhood growth strategies, negotiated deals, and represented the city to investors, developers, and community groups. He was responsible for lobbying the board of aldermen as well as state and federal governments. He supervised housing, retail, higher education, theater, public infrastructure, and commercial development projects totaling over $1 billion.
Fernandez has helped lead local and state political campaigns, including the early campaigns of Ken Reeves, Cambridge, Massachusetts' first African American mayor, and John DeStefano's primary and general election campaigns for governor of Connecticut.
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