Isaac Myers

Isaac Myers was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to free parents, in 1835. Isaac lived in a city where no schools were offered to free black children. Instead he received some basic schooling at a school run by the Rev. John Fortie. When his basic schooling was finished Myers's parents arranged for him to take up an apprenticeship to be a caulker for clipper ships that came into the Baltimore harbor. Myers was placed under a well-known black caulker named James Jackson.

In 1865, white shipyard workers staged an anti-black strike in order to force shipyard owners to fire all black employees. By pushing blacks out of these jobs it would make room for growing numbers of whites who hoped to be employed at this time in Baltimore. Myers was one of many blacks who looked for ways to help secure the jobs of blacks in the shipyard business. Myers joined a group of both black and white investors who raised ten thousand dollars in order to purchase and start the Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company, in 1886. The company employed hundreds of caulkers, both black and white, from all over the city. The company was able to pay their workers three dollars a day. The company gained some government contracts and paid off their debts owed for buying the company in five years. The Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company would stay in operation until 1884; it allowed Myers to a large amount of labor organization work. Myers hope was to organize shipyard works into labor unions. In 1868, Myers would take a step towards success when he became president of the Colored Caulker’s Trades Union Society of Baltimore, and another step in 1869, by helping with the Colored National Labor Union.

In 1869, the National Labor Union made its conferences open to blacks. That year Myers was invited to the National Labor Union conference to be a speaker; he was one of nine blacks in attendance. Shortly after the conference Myers was elected president of the Colored National Labor Union, the first of its kind in American history. The Colored National Labor Union did not last long due to the pressures created by the depression. In 1875, Myers took the lead in organizing the Colored Men’s Progressive and Cooperative Union; the goal of this group was to help create access for black workers to white local unions in Baltimore. The group also wanted to encourage apprenticeship and training for young black men. Myers was also a member of the Colored Businessmen’s Association and the Colored Building and Loan Association.

Isaac Myers dedicated his life to helping advance blacks in Baltimore. Myers died on January 26, 1881.

External links

* [http://www.mdoe.org/myersisaac.html The Maryland Online Encyclopedia (MdOE) Biography of Isaac Myers]
* [http://www.themariner.net/frederick_douglass.htm The Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park]
* [http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/6050/html/cmrddc.html Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company]
* [http://www.douglassmyers.org/ The Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park]