- Maida Springer-Kemp (b. 1910). Labor leader, international representative. Born in Panama, Kemp is a naturalized U.S. citizen who came to New York with her mother at seven. Her first union activity began during the 1933 General Strike of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union as a member of the Dressmakers’ Union. Thousands of workers responded to the call, mostly women, and for the first time many Black women. They struck gladly to protest the sweatshop conditions. Kemp’s commitment to the union movement has been a source of “great excitement and great challenge.” Her lifelong work includes local union board member (1940s); an AFL delegate to England (1945); education director of a local union; business agent for the Dressmakers’ union (1946-1959); international representative for AFL-CIO assigned to Africa (1959-1965); general organizer for the ILGWU and Mid-West Director of the A. Philip Randolph Institute; throughout the 70s, consultant to the AFL-CIO sponsored African and Asian Institutes. About her work, she says: “You were doing it not for yourself, surely you benefited, but Page 318 →on behalf of a larger citizenship, for whom dignity, respect, and the workers’ role was emphasized. For me this has always been a privilege.”
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