Honoring the significant contribution of Charleston's Rosetta Simmons.
Rosetta Simmons, pictured between Coretta Scott King and Juanita Abernathy, went on from Burke High School to work as a Licensed Practical Nurse at the Medical College Hospital, then the Charleston Memorial Hospital in 1966. She became frustrated with the unequal treatment African American workers faced at the hospital, and began meeting with local activists and union leaders to organize the hospital workers in striking for better pay and fair treatment.
“Dignity and respect.” Rosetta Simmons said these were her main concerns as an organizer of the Charleston Hospital Workers’ Strike. In her 2009 oral history she explained, “That was my main goal, dignity and respect… Management needed to know that we are human beings, and we ought to be treated with dignity and respect.”
As an organizer, Simmons felt it was important to grab the city’s attention by always having strikers on the picket line. Simmons worked with SCLC to organize shifts for the strikers, keeping the line filled at all hours of the day.
When the strike ended, Simmons worked closely with the movement’s leadership to play a valuable role in the rehiring of her associates. The strike ended in the summer of 1969, but Simmons was not rehired until November. During these months of negotiating to get her job back, Simmons remained involved in civil rights in Charleston by helping register over 800 African American to vote. She also became the vice president of the local union, 1199B, and remained an active member of the union until her retirement in 1996 after 29 years of service.
Listen to more of Rosetta Simmon’s oral history through the Lowcountry Digital History Initiative. And read more about the Charleston Hospital Workers Movement here.