Fred Redmond

 Fredrick D. Redmond is the secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO). At the AFL-CIO Convention in June 2022, he was unanimously elected to the position as the highest ranking African American officer in the history of America’s labor movement. For decades, Redmond served the United Steelworkers (USW) in various staff and senior leadership roles, assisting local unions, developing and conducting training programs, and bargaining contracts.

For many years, prior to becoming Secretary Treasurer, Brother Redmond was the major force and senior leader of the Black trade union movement through his chairmanship of the A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI) and in his leadership of and unwavering support for the Coalition of Black Trade Unionist (CBTU). 

In this capacity Fred Redmond has been the heir to the powerful legacy of A. Philip Randolph, founder of the Black Trade Union movement, the March on Washington and archteched of the Civil Rights Movemebt. As the Secretary Treasurer of the AFL-CIO Brother Redmond is the partial fulfillment of Randolph’s project to make the Black worker central to organized labor and to transform of America. 

Dr. King, in his historic speech at the March on Washington, spoke of opening "the great vaults of opportunity” in “the bank of justice of this nation".

This year's Summit for Civil Rights recognizes the tremendous contribution of Brother Fred Redmond for his leadership of the American labor movement and for his recent, and well-deserved, elevation to Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO. Mr. Redmond is the highest ranking African American labor leader in American history following in the footsteps of the great A. Philip Randolph.

The Clyburn Award was named for its first recipient James E. Clyburn who rose to become the highest ranking and most powerful African American member of United States Congress and for the “Great Vaults of Opportunity” that Dr. King insisted be pried opened for American working families of all colors in his August 28, 1963, speech at the March on Washington.