Skip to main content

The timeline can be navigated with the “Scroll Left” and “Scroll Right” buttons or by dragging the pointer to a date on the timeline waveform (located at the bottom of the screen on the desktop version and on the left of the screen on mobile). To filter by a particular topic and see a smaller section of the data, make a selection on the dropdown “Filters” menu or click “Search” to do a keyword search. Hover over the abbreviated filter tags in the blue boxes to see the complete name of the filter, or click a filter to display all the data with this tag. If you want to take a deeper dive into a specific topic by viewing a narrative essay page and a curated timeline, click on “Stories.”

Read More

The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge.

1955

LAB

The country's two primary labor unions were previously divided, as the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was committed to a multiracial organizing strategy to meet the growing demographics of industrial centers. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) primarily organized in rural areas and did not see this as a priority.

However, in 1955 the two unions come together, creating a fully-integrated trade union. The AFL-CIO, along with the United Auto Workers and the Sleeping Porters Union, are key supporters in the emerging civil rights movement.