Louise Sundin, Panelist
Educator, labor leader, and powerful advocate for workers’ rights, women’s rights, and social justice.
Louise Sundin is an educator, labor leader, and powerful advocate for workers’ rights, women’s rights, and social justice. Currently Sundin is Vice President of the MN AFL-CIO State Retiree Council and the Minneapolis Regional Retiree Council as well as several other worker retiree groups. She also lobbies for public employee pensions. Her deep commitment to civil rights and labor movements is reflected in her 37 years of service on the Nellie Stone Johnson Scholarship board, a program providing financial assistance to union members and their families pursuing higher education.
Sundin worked closely with Johnson, one of the first African American women to hold leadership roles in unions, and she continues to honor Johnson’s legacy through her advocacy. Sundin played a pivotal role in the fundraising, designing, producing, and unveiling the statue of Nellie Stone Johnson in the Minnesota State Capitol. Johnson’s statue is the only legislatively authorized installation memorializing an African American woman in any state capitol building.
Throughout her career, Sundin has been recognized nationally for her work in advancing educational equity and workers’ rights. As a close colleague and mentee of Nellie Stone Johnson, Sundin will speak on Johnson’s enduring contributions to civil rights, human rights, and the labor movement, particularly her pioneering work advocating for workforce diversity and equality in education and employment.
Nellie Stone Johnson Statue Unveiling
Nellie Stone Johnson Woman of the Century
Reflections by Minnesota State Representative Joe Mullery (View PDF)
Through indefatigable hard work, political organizing, fiery oratory, a deep understanding of history and social interaction, and a passion to help common people and those who faced discrimination, Nellie rose from an ordinary citizen to become a champion of womens’ rights, workers’ rights, education and civil rights.
As a farm girl of African and European descent, Nellie began her 80+ years of political life at age 13, door knocking for the Nonpartisan League and the Farmer Labor Party. Later, in Minneapolis, she encountered severe racism, sexism, and anti-worker policies. She realized labor unions could overcome these injustices. When she faced anti-worker changes in her job at the Minneapolis Athletic Club, she recruited for the union and soon became one of the first female Vice Presidents and contract negotiators for a union. She was a sought-after speaker all over the state for workers’ rights and minority rights, and soon became a powerful factor as a board member of the Minnesota AFL-CIO and Central Labor Union.
Nellie was a friend of, and advisor to, Hubert Humphrey. She worked with him closely on issues, especially for people of color and women, regarding education, jobs, housing, medical care as he achieved national leadership on them as Mayor, Senator and Vice President. She provided great help to him in elections by bringing union workers and people of color to his campaigns.
Their friendship was instrumental in convincing other leaders of the Farmer Labor and Democratic parties to merge into the DFL. She wasn’t just a founder of the DFL, and a member of its Executive Committee. She later served as Democratic Party National Committeewoman, a founder of its Black Affairs Department, and served on its Agriculture Committee. Nellie was also a close friend of, and advisor to, Senator and Vice President Walter Mondale and worked with him on his national leadership on civil rights. When he travelled in Africa on his Goodwill Tour, he took Nellie as his “right hand man”.
Nellie was the first Black elected to Minneapolis government, and she was the leading crusader for Minneapolis’ nation-leading Fair Employment ordinance and then its Fair Housing ordinance, and later advanced passage of similar laws for Minnesota. She was on the executive committee of the Minneapolis NAACP for 26 years and served on its national committees, and chaired committees for the Urban League as well as other organizations for people of color.
During her many years on the boards for the state universities and colleges systems, she became known as the “voice for the students and faculty”. Then, she established the first scholarship fund for students of color in those schools. In recognition of her efforts for students, St Cloud State University awarded her an Honorary Doctorate of Letters Degree.
Even though she was offered many great jobs, she chose to establish her own alterations business so that she didn’t have to worry about her employer’s thoughts on her political and union activities, and she could leave her work whenever there was a need for her civic activity.
Nellie opposed racism and tribalism no matter where it came from. She emphasized that she didn’t care whether her elected representative was black or white; she just wanted the one who did the best job, especially for “her people”. She stressed that she strongly supported affirmative action but opposed anyone getting a job just because of their race, especially if they weren’t well qualified. Nellie emphasized she wanted minorities to have an equal opportunity for education and training, and to get the job if qualified. Equal opportunity, not equal results. And she wanted to look at the present and future, not the past. She felt the first help should go to African Americans and Native Americans who face generational poverty. After that, she fought for help for other minorities and even for whites in poverty who hadn’t received an equal opportunity to succeed.
At the age of 74, Nellie recruited and ran the campaign for Van White, who was then elected as the first Black Minneapolis Council member. Even in her 90s she door-knocked for her friend who became a legislator. She received many awards from governmental organizations, unions, businesses and minority groups.
