06 Apr Celebrating A History Maker Who Knows Representation Matters
Last Thursday, as we closed out Women’s History Month, CoCo honored Yvonne Wheeler, a stalwart leader, activist, and an incredible history-maker. President Wheeler is currently the head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. She is the first African American woman to hold this post. The Federation is affiliated with 300 labor organizations representing 800,000 members. She is also the Vice Chair of the CA Democratic Party Labor Caucus.
What inspires us about President Wheeler is her leadership and what it means to be able to see ourselves in her leadership because we all know that representation matters. We are fairly sure that President Wheeler would have been one of Community Coalition’s SCYEA youth leaders when she was in high school. Early on, Yvonne understood how to use direct action and civil disobedience. She was forced to attend Baton Rouge High School due to desegregation. The school district refused to provide school buses for her and her classmates. So President Wheeler joined a group of Black students who marched on the school district’s offices, which produced some arrests but compelled officials to provide buses for students to get to school.
What also inspires us about her leadership is that our phone bankers can see themselves when they see her because she understands that sometimes you have to use activism when using the telephone. In 1991, she worked at General Telephone Co. (GTE); she stood up to company management when all African American operators were disciplined after a customer complained about rude service by one “black operator.” Wheeler objected to the singling out of workers not because they were rude but because they were “Black.” Management backed down after her challenge.
Her leadership allows our Civic Engagement Team to understand how important and impactful getting out the vote is. In 1996, Present Wheeler managed a voter engagement drive among African Americans to defeat former Gov. Pete Wilson’s anti-labor Proposition 226, dramatically increasing voter turnout. Most importantly, what inspires us about President Wheeler is how she, like Community Coalition’s members, fights the good fight for families–including her own. President Wheeler is the mother of L’Toya and Daryl. She is also the proud grandmother to Kamryn and Kaleb.
President Wheeler’s election comes after the audio leak scandal involving former LA Fed President Ron Herrera and other city officials. It is a much-needed step in the direction of trust repair and inclusivity.
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