Isaac Myers was born a freeman in Baltimore, Maryland in 1835. The state of Maryland didn’t offer public education to black people so Myers attended a private day school. At sixteen he became the apprentice to James Jackson, a successful black ship caulker. Isaac Myers ended up supervising the caulking of merchant vessels called clipper ships.
Post Civil War
During the Civil War Isaac Myers was employed as a porter and shipping clerk for a grocer, he then opened a cooperative grocery business. The cooperative was short-lived and Myers went back to the shipyard. After the Civil War Myers found himself unemployed due to continuing strikes from white workers. They were offended due to having to work with black caulkers. The black caulkers were consequently fired and Myers advised his co-workers to pool resources and form a cooperative shipyard and railway.
The Colored National Labor Union
The Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company was born, it opened in February 1866 and employed over 300 black workers. In 1868 the Colored Caulkers Trade Union Society was also established and attempted to join the National Labor Union. Discrimination ran rampant however and the NLU rejected colored workers joining their union. It prompted Myers to create the Colored National Labor Union in 1869, Myers ended up being President of both the National Union and the Trade Union.
I speak today for the colored men of the whole country…when I tell you that all they ask for themselves is a fair chance; that you shall be no worse off by giving them that chance….The white men of the country have nothing to fear….We desire to have the highest rate of wages that our labor is worth.
The Colored men’s Union
Frederick Douglas succeeded Myers in 1872, right before both the National Labor Union and the Colored Labor Union disbanded due to political pressures and the Depression of 1873. Myers continued his work with cooperatives and created the Colored men’s Progressive and Cooperative Union which was open to black and white people, and all occupational backgrounds. This Union was headquartered in the South.
Increasing his involvement in the Republican party, Isaac worked as a Customs Agent and postal inspector in the South. He soon returned to Baltimore to operate a coal yard. Myers became President of the Maryland Colored State Industrial Fair Association, the Colored Businessmen’s Association of Baltimore, the Colored Building and Loan Association and the Aged Ministers home of the A.M.E. Church. Myers also edited a weekly newspaper, The Colored Citizen, up until his death on January 26th 1891 at 56. He married twice and had several sons, one of which became an activist in Ohio, George Myers.
https://aaregistry.org/story/the-colored-national-labor-union-a-story
https://apwu.org/news/isaac-myers-pioneer-african-american-trade-union-movement
https://aaregistry.org/story/isaac-myers-labor-union-administrator-born
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/myers-isaac-1835-1891/
https://aflcio.org/2019/2/21/black-history-month-labor-profiles-isaac-myers