William Lucy

For over four decades, William (Bill) Lucy has been at the forefront of the labor movement in American and around the world. As International Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) for nearly 40 years, Lucy helped the union grow from 200,000 to over 1.4 million members in 3,500 local unions nationwide. He also helped define the role of African Americans in the labor unions when he co-founded the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) in 1972. Along the way, he has stood alongside the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in civil rights struggles and Nelson Mandela in opposition to apartheid. Lucy co-founded the Free South Africa Movement, a grassroots campaign that sparked widespread opposition to apartheid across the United States.