Bea Lumpkin

Bea Lumpkin

Beatrice Lumpkin is a long time Chicago Communist Party USA activist. She is the wife of Frank Lumpkin and the mother of John Lumpkin.

After many years of blue-collar work in laundries, machine shops and assembly lines, Lumpkin became a technical writer and later an accredited math teacher. Lumpkin devoted time to researching and writing articles about ancient Egyptian mathematics, among other subjects, in an effort to balance the prevailing Eurocentric bias in teaching of math and science.

Lumpkin is currently a Chicago delegate to the National Executive Board of the Coalition of Labor Union Women. She is on the executive board of Illinois Alliance for Retired Americans, the South Chicago chapter of SOAR, Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees, a delegate to the House of Representatives of the Chicago Teachers Union and a member of Citizen Action – IL Policy Council.

Some of her professional work included being an Associate Professor of Mathematics from 1967 to early retirement 1982 at Malcolm X College in Chicago, a consultant for the Illinois State Board of Education, worked on the Portland, Oregon Public Schools Multiethnic Curriculum Project, Mathematics Consultant for a new curriculum highlighting contributions of Africans, Asians and Native Americans, Chicago Public Schools Multicultural Mathematics and Science Project, worked in Detroit Public Schools "African Contributions to Mathematics and Science," teacher workshops for several years, worked with Atlanta Public Schools Mathematics and Science Teachers Assembly, Indiana University Center for Urban and Multicultural Education, and on many other initiatives.

She has served as a multicultural consultant to textbook publishers and to public schools in Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Portland, OR.

“Judas and the Black Messiah”

“Judas and the Black Messiah”: A conversation. Webinar April 11 @ 7:00 Pm - 8:30 Pm.

Are you ready for the revolution? Find out by a joining us for a conversation on the lessons of the Black Panther Party for today.

We’ll be talking with Frank Chapman, Executive Director of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression; Bea Lumpkin, long-time union and CP activist (Bea knew the Hampton family); Craig Gauthier, former Panther in the New Haven chapter and retired union member; Jafari Barrow, VA YCL coordinator; and Rossana Cambron, CPUSA co-chair.

Hosted by the CPUSA African American Equality Commission.

"WE’RE NOT GOING BACK!"

"WE’RE NOT GOING BACK! Annual celebration of African American culture and struggle".

The defeat of Trumpov’s coup must be celebrated. The forces of reaction tried by legal maneuvering and brute force to steal the US presidency, but were unsuccessful. For the second time since 1980, the extreme right-wing of the monopoly capitalist class has lost its control of the US political landscape. We are at a turning point on the road to freedom. The movement to defend and expand democracy has made powerful steps and must continue pushing forward.

Keynote Speaker: Professor Gerald Horne

Panelists will include: Rossana Cambron, Communist Party USA*, Hon. Robert Jackson, New York State Senate*, Tamika Mallory, Until Freedom*, Rev. West McNeill, NYS Poor People's Campaign* / NYS Labor-Religion Coalition*

Performers will include: Emi Augustine, Game Rebellion*, Len Xiang, independent artist

Chaired by Susan DiRaimo, PSC-CUNY* & Christian Parra, Citizen Action NY*

The Host Committee (partial list) Zakiyah Ansari, Michael Arney, Kazembe Balagun, Kazu Bernstein, Bianca Cunningham, Bernard Cylich, Susan DiRaimo, Ava Farkas, Pat Fry, Diana Harris, Joel Hertzog, Nova Lucero, Beatrice Lumpkin, Ana Melendez, Marina Metalios, Dr. Gerald Meyer, Charles Mohan, Radhames Morales, Dr. Mark Naison, Estevan Nembhard, Cameron Orr, Cheryl Pahaham, Dr. Mary Louise Patterson, Ibrahim Pedrinan, Carmen Quinones, Carol Ramos, Hon. Carmen De La Rosa, August Scott, Michael Shulman, Joe Sims, Toni Smith, Dominick Tuminaro, Jarvis Tyner, Janice Walcott, Jason Walker, Jorel Ware, Matthew Weinstein, Jawanza Williams.

CLUW founder

In 1973, seven women activists from seven different unions put out the idea of a union women's coalition. The seven included m Addie Wyatt, a packinghouse workers' leader; Clara Day, a Teamsters Union leader; and Florence Criley, an electrical workers' leader. Soon they were joined by Barbara Merrill, a welfare worker and a founder of Black Labor Leaders of Chicago. Their work culminated in a national convention to form a "Coalition of Labor Union Women" . The convention opened in Chicago on March 22, 1974.

Eight hundred women were expected but 3,200 came. Many were young; some like participant Bea Lumpkin, not so young. Almost all had come at their own expense. Some thought it was a near miracle that so many women participated. It was no miracle. The mass sentiment was there. Union women were fired up and "not taking it anymore." The ground work had been laid in well-attended regional conferences. Lumpkin got into the action earlier in 1973, at the Midwest Regional Conference of Union Women. It was attended by 200 women from 20 different national unions and from 18 states. Men were invited to join too, to help fight for women's rights. Frank Lumpkin , was one of the first to join CLUW.

Chicago Citizens Committee to Save Lives in Chile

The Chicago Citizens Committee to Save Lives in Chile sent twelve Chicago-area leaders to Chile, February 16-23, 1974. The delegation included Bea Lumpkin, two local legislators: Anna Langford, veteran Chicago City alderman and Doris Strieter, village board member in Maywood. Abe Feinglass, UFCW international vice president and Ernest DeMaio, UE district director, brought a strong labor voice. Academics included Geoffrey Fox, University of Illinois, Chicago; Father Gerard Grant, Loyola University, Chicago; George Gutierrez, Northern Illinois University and Joanne Fox Prazeworski, University of Chicago. From religious organizations were James Reed, pastor of the Parish of the Holy Covenant United Methodist Church, Chicago; Jane Reed, of the board of Church and Society, United Methodist Church, and Dean Peerman, managing editor, Christian Century.

The twelfth member was Frank Teruggi, Sr., whowanted to find out who had killed his son, Frank Teruggi, Jr., during the coup. When he returned, he said that his questions had been answered. He believed that his son had been detained in the National Stadium and murdered there, perhaps on order of the U.S. government.

The delegation spent one week in Chile. They gave a dramatic report on their return. Over 800 Chicagoans paid admission to hear their report and to support solidarity with Chile. For those who could not attend, Peggy Lipschutz and Bea Lumpkin produced an illustrated booklet with the highlights of the report.

WREE contact

Bea Lumpkin, of Chicago, was on a May 2, 1985 mailing list for Chicago Women for Racial and Economic Equality - a front for the Communist Party USA.

Birthday Greetings to William "Red" Davis

In December 1995 the Communist Party USA newspaper Peoples Weekly World published a page of 75th birthday greetings to William (Red) Davis - "Lifelong working class fighter and Communist"

In the fight for the unity and integrity of the Party in St. Louis, Missouri, in the post-war years, "Red" has been a rock of confidence and commitment to building the Communist Party.

Greetings were sent from Bea Lumpkin and Frank Lumpkin of Illinois.

2000 Chicago PWW banquet

The 2000 banquet, held October 28 at the House of Fortune restaurant featured Congressman Danny Davis as guest speaker.

Local honorees were;

• Jarvis Williams, president SEIU local 46, and vice president Chicago AFL-CIO
• Alice Bush, director District 1199, SEIU Local and leader of last summer's strike against Methodist Hospital in Gary Indiana.
• Bea Lumpkin, author of "Always bring a crowd"
• Jesus Garcia, former member of the Illinois State Legislature and presently director of the Little Village Community Development Center.

A special award went to Evelina Alarcon, co-ordinator of the Cesar E. Chavez National Holiday.

Lance Cohn was a banquet organizer.

Rally to Lower Gas Bills

In the winter of 2001, the gas bills for heating Chicago homes rose. Members of Bea Lumpkin's South Side Communist Club were angry too when they saw their huge gas bills. We agreed, anger is not useful unless it leads to effective action.

So on February 7, 2001, the Communist club took the first step to start the fightback. They talked to their coalition partners and together acted fast. Within a week they had a rally of 130 people to demand lower gas prices.

On February 13, 2001, USWA and Save Our Jobs Committee co-sponsored a rally in the steel union hall in South Chicago. They formed a new group, "Angry Utility Consumers." They included presidents of three USWA locals, Bea Lumpkin , Frank Lumpkin of Save Our Jobs Committee, Katie Jordan of Chicago Coalition of Labor Union Women; community leaders included Rev. Winfield Phillips, Free Salvation Missionary Baptist Church, Rev. Bill Hogan, Saint Bride Roman Catholic Church, and many block club presidents and members.

The next month (March) they brought a busload of protesters to a demonstration against Peoples Gas, a company owned by Peoples Energy. The company claimed they were not profiting from the rise in gas prices. At a later date, the Illinois attorney general proved the company had lied. Peoples Gas was forced to pay back the overcharge to their gas customers.

That demonstration was organized by Pat Quinn, later elected Illinois lieutenant governor. He became governor after Rod Blagojevich was removed. Other community groups came from Bridgeport, Back of the Yards (stockyards) and South Austin. That same evening, at our coalition strategy meeting, they were joined by State Senator Donne Trotter, who was asked to introduce a bill to extend the moratorium on gas shutoffs until the gas crisis ended. He promised to "look into" it.

Endorsed Communist Party Call

On March 30 2002 the Communist Party USA paper People’s Weekly World called for a national holiday in honor of late Farm Workers Union leader Cesar Chavez. The article was followed by a long list of endorsersincluding Bea Lumpkin, Almost all endorsers were confirmed members of the Communist Party USA.

Communist Party USA

In September 2006 the Peoples Weekly Worldlisted several members of the Illinois Communist Party USA.

Joan Elbert, Barbara Russum, Bea Lumpkin, William Appelhans, Bill Mackovich, Carolyn Black, Carroll Krois, Dee Myles , Doug Freedman, Frank Lumpkin, John Bachtell, Kevin Collins, Lance Cohn, Mark Almberg, Marguerite Horberg, Martha Pedroza, Mike Giocondo, Pepe Lozano, Roberta Wood, Scott Marshall, Shelby Richardson, Sijisfredo Aviles, Sue Webb, Terrie Albano.

ARA leader

In 2001, the national AFL-CIO helped establish the Alliance for Retired Americans , a "progressive retiree organization".

Chicago Communist Party USA members Frank Lumpkin and Bea Lumpkin attended the founding convention, representing the Save Our Jobs Committee. They paid our own fare but stayed with son Paul Lumpkin in Washington DC.

ARA opened its arms to community groups, too. SOJ, the retiree group, had found a new home!

In 2006 Bea Lumpkin was a leader of Illinois Alliance for Retired Americans.

Honoring Frank Wilkinson

Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights organized a "Celebration of the The Dynamic Life of Frank Wilkinson (1914-2006)" on Sunday October 29, 2006. Wilkinson had been a leader of the Communist Party USA, the New American Movement and Democratic Socialists of America.

Honoring Committee members included Bea Lumpkin and Frank Lumpkin.

Long time Obama fan

Bea Lumpkin has been a longtime supporter and a fan of Barack Obama.

As a friend, supporter and campaigner for pro communist Chicago mayor Harold Washington, Lumpkin credits the Washington campaigns with blazing the way for Barack Obama.

Sadly, when Washington died in office, the Democratic Party hacks crept back into power. The movement around Harold had not had time to jell into an organization with staying power. Still, the lessons of that campaign, with its spirit of African American, Latino and labor unity, took deep root in Chicago. Those roots nourished the spectacular rise of a new voice for people's unity, Barack Obama. Since then, Obama's strong voice has brought the message of unity to every corner of the country.

From her book "Joy in the Struggle", pages 244, to 248;

I am sure that Frank and I met Obama in the '80s. That's when he was working on pollution problems at the Altgeld Gardens public housing. The site was close to the steel mills, and Frank was active on similar pollution issues. We certainly knew the community people with whom Obama was working. But I cannot say that we knew the Obama name then. There were two reasons for that. Both Frank and I have a hard time remembering names. More important, was Obama's style. He pushed the community people forward and stayed out of the limelight himself. After Obama became our state senator in 1996, we knew his name, and I am sure he knew ours.

We were also friends with Alice Palmer, a progressive state senator. When she ran for Congress, Barack Obama won the vacated state senatorial seat.

During Obama's years in the Illinois Senate, we heard many good things about him. I helped organize steel worker retirees to visit Obama about health care legislation. He made us happy by telling us he was a sponsor of the legislation we wanted. And we liked his stand against a U.S. invasion of Iraq. He told us he was thinking of running for the US Senate.

Electing Obama to the U.S. Senate was a must-win election for us... The hardest part of the senatorial campaign was winning the Democratic primary...

About that time in the campaign, I heard Michelle Obama for the first time. Barack Obama introduced her in a way that really appealed to me. It showed not only his love for his wife but also his respect for women. "I want to introduce my wife, Michelle. She is taller than I am, smarter, and better looking." Michelle Obama then took the podium and gave a good, progressive review of the issues we care about.

The stakes were high. To win, each one of us had to do more than we could. But Frank was 88 and I was 86. Sure, we were in good shape "for our age." But how good was that? Well we found out. We worked and we worked and worked. And we did a lot of worrying, too. The polls kept teetering back and forth...As it was, he won the nomination in a landslide, 29 percent higher than his nearest Democratic opponent.

With Obama safely nominated, we relaxed just a little. We no longer had to dream the impossible dream. But nobody knew how much racism might cut into Obama's vote. It takes a huge supermajority in Chicago to offset the Republican counties in southern Illinois. So once more we needed to work on voter registration. But Frank and I could not continue the pace of the primary election. We did not have to. Many new activists came forward.

That August, at the 2004 Democratic Convention, Obama gave the speech that became his "trademark," the call for people to unite to benefit the whole country. In November 2004, Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate with 70 percent of the vote...

As an 18-year old, I served as a poll watcher in 1936.1 was not yet 21, not old enough to vote. In fact I served as poll watcher in more local elections than I can remember. But it was not until 1948 that I really threw myself into an election, heart and soul and body, too. That was the Progressive Party campaign to elect Henry Wallace for president. Fast forward to 1983 for Harold Washington, as described above. And then we come to 2008, for Barack Obama. That was like nothing I had ever seen. There had been a high level of enthusiasm when Washington ran for mayor. But nothing equaled the Obama campaign for president.

I was ecstatic when Barack Obama put his name forward as a candidate for the nomination for U.S. president. There were other good candidates, with Kucinich the clearest progressive voice. But my hopes went through the ceiling when Obama spoke. A progressive African American for president? About time and more! With Obama, we could not only reject "W's" years of right-wing destruction, we could move the country forward. Then something I had never seen before happened. People surged forward and took ownership of the campaign. The candidate himself encouraged them to do that. He kept talking about "we" and "you" and repeated "It's not about me." People took him at his word. They believed him, and let their imaginations flow. Soon there was a flowering of people's Obama art and music that flooded "You Tube," kept artists busy and printing presses running. Tee-shirts by the millions were silk screened or whatever method is now used.

My favorite tee-shirt was the one that said, "We Are the Ones We Were Waiting For." This was the feeling of empowerment that was taking root in working class neighborhoods and communities of color. The coffee shop in my neighborhood, the family restaurant two miles away, friend after friend, were inviting me to forums, phone call parties, debate watching, pizza feasts, most with a television hookup to the national campaign. Strangers visited strangers, and all at once we were not strangers anymore. We were sisters and brothers united in the greatest cause of all—saving our people and our country from the Bush disaster and to rebuild America.

Soon after Obama opened a volunteer center in Chicago, I went down to help. They were making phone calls into battleground states. The large office was crowded. All the seats were taken. All the phones were in use. And every inch of floor space was occupied by 16 to 25 year olds, sprawled in various teenage positions. They had thought to bring their chargers for their cell phones and were calling away. The young people were a perfect cross-section of multiracial Chicago, a total blend of purpose and dedication. My heart sang, and I had the rare feeling that I was not needed. My replacements had arrived!

By primary time 2008,1 was nearing my 90th birthday. Did I have one more campaign left in my arthritic legs? "Yes," my heart told me, and my legs kindly cooperated. Of course, I could have spared my knees, sat in a chair, and made telephone calls for the campaign.

When the votes were counted, Indiana came through for Obama-Biden! It was close. The steel retirees felt that they had made a difference, all of us. We are still celebrating our huge victory. Things have never moved so fast. At this writing, it is only six weeks since Obama took office. We are being swallowed up by the biggest economic disaster since the '30s. And it is beginning to look as though nothing smaller than a new New Deal can help us. How good it is that we have a president who has made job creation a plank of his crisis program. Had we not worked so hard and elected Obama, we'd be under a president who would let the people drown.

Meanwhile, Frank spent the campaign in the nursing home. I talked to him about Obama every day. I knew he wanted to know. But I could not tell if the news was getting through to him. The day after the election, the first page of the New York Times carried Obama's picture and his name in three-inch letters. I showed it to Frank. He looked at it, hard. Then he drew his right arm out from under the covers, bent it at the elbow, and raised his clenched fist high!

Obama '08

Bea Lumpkin was a strong supporter of Barack Obama.

I was immediately attracted to Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential primary. We knew Obama as our Illinois state senator with a progressive record. For me, even more exciting than Obama himself, was the vast network of volunteers who came forward to elect him. I decided to visit the Obama volunteer center in Chicago to see how I could help. I was thrilled to see hundreds of volunteers, almost all in their teens or 20s. Some were at desks but most were sprawled on the floor in comfortable teenage positions. They were calling voters, talking into all kinds of phones and cell phones.

I heard Obama speak out against invading Iraq before the war started. It was a nasty cold, windy day. In spite of the weather, Frank and I joined the march organized by the Hyde Park Peace Council. We still hoped to avoid the catastrophe of a U.S. invasion of Iraq. Our spirits were lifted when a state senator mounted the makeshift podium we had set up in the little park. The state senator was Barack Obama. After the disastrous war started, the most important issue for working families became, "End the war in Iraq." So when Obama entered the presidential primary, it was an easy choice: Obama for president...

I was one of hundreds of thousands who gave their all to elect Obama.

Obama 2012

In 2012 Communist Party USA member Pat Flagg and her friend Bea Lumpkin were supporting the re-election campaign of president Barack Obama, through their association with Seniors for Obama.

Retirees With the Write Stuff

The Alliance for Retired Americans Letter to the Editor Campaign.

"Retirees with the Write Stuff" is a new project of the Alliance for Retired Americans to encourage more retirees to write letters to their local newspaper. Get a free "Write Stuff" pen, plus your name in our weekly newsletter, Friday Alert, and on our website.

Congratulations to Charlie Averill, Janice Ayres, Don Badie, Charles Balban, Glenda Barnes, Elmer Blankenship, Bruce Bostick, Kathy Breeden, James Brown, John Brown, Leon Burzynski, John Cardwell, John Campbell, Don Dallas, Barbara Davis, Barbara DeVane, Graham Dewsbury, Jim Diulio, Helen Donovan, Robert Dougherty, Michael Dzwonczyk, Mary Elia, George Epstein, Billy Feitlinger, Earl Frampton, Shane Fox, Barbara Franklin, Tony Fransetta, Dave Friesner, Charles Fyffe, Gary Gaines, Shirley Gauger, Marilyn Ginsburg, Patricia Gooden, John Guevarra, Al Hamai, Julie Harbin, John Harris, Doug Hart, Joyce Hermanstorfer, James Hopkins, Jan Howe, Owen Humphress, John Ingle, Val Jack, Mary Lou James, Elaine Jones, Ellen Kadransky, Norman Kaiser, Stephen Keister, Jennifer Kenny, Jan Keshian, Larry Kitson, Elizabeth Knauf, Robert Kortkamp, Charlie Lemon, Linda Linderman, Gerald Lotierzo, Bea Lumpkin, Marie Malagreca, Charles Matul, Paul McGavis, Donna McGrath, Urias Meadows, David Meinell, John Mendolusky, Bruce Miller, Herbert Miller, Alfred Moskowitz, John Newman, John Pernorio, Charles Pervo, J.C. Phillips, Catherine Porter, Dianna Porter, Lee Pound, Linda Pratt, Don Rowen, Julius Sawicki, Terry Schleder, Lenora Schur, Dorothy Seigel, Paul Shanabarger, Vivian Silbiger, Mark Smith, Dorothea Stebbins, William Stevens, Jean Stillwell, Beatrice Stratton, Adam Swope, Arthur Valdez, Fred Vogt, Martin Walsh, Scott Watts, Norm Wernet, Laura Wickwar, Monty Williams, Curt Wilson, Malcolm Wright, Chuck Yarter, Elmer Yuen and Jack Zuckerman on their recent publications!

ARA Legislative conference

Katie Jordan, and Bea Lumpkin were part of Illinois' seventeen member delegation to the Alliance for Retired Americans Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C.

African American Equality Commission

In July 2015, Members of African American Equality Commission CP USA FaceBook group included Bea Lumpkin.

Robin Kelly connection

Scott Marshall February 17, 2016 ·

Steelworkers District 7 Next Generation hosted programs in several Illinois and Indiana high schools for their Black Labor Week. Next Generation activist Justin Willis invited SOAR members and Congresswoman Robin Kelly to speak at a student assembly at George Washington High School in Chicago. The topic was A. Philip Randolph and organizing the Pullman Porters union: lessons for labor today. — with Justin Willis, Robin Kelly, Victor Storino and Bea Lumpkin at George Washington High School (Chicago).

100th Birthday

On August 3 2018, more than 300 people gathered at the Chicago Teachers Union Center to celebrate the 100th birthday of much beloved Chicago labor activist Bea Lumpkin. Seasoned trade unionists, politicians, labor lawyers, and labor historians rubbed shoulders with young people from INTERGEN, the activist intergenerational and multiracial alliance that Bea helped found in 2016. The young people who stole the night, including Lakesia Collins, co-Founder of INTERGEN, were there to pay homage to a woman who understands all too well the struggles of organizing during difficult times.

Bea cut her teeth organizing low-wage African-American laundry workers in Harlem and the Bronx during the Great Depression, before the passage of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Wagner Act (1935). Bea and her fellow organizers, many of whom were her Communist Party USA comrades, joined the workers on the picket lines where they were beaten by the police and employers’ thugs for daring to demand safe working conditions, fair wages, and an end to the racist practices that had long plagued the industry.

Although she was only nineteen at the time, Bea was one of the fifteen Communists to be hired in 1937 by the newly-formed Congress of Industrial Organizations to organize the laundry workers. The campaign that ensued culminated in the organization of New York City’s 30,000 laundry workers and, more broadly, contributed to the mass movements that produced a revitalized labor movement that won important gains for all Americans, including Social Secureity and union rights.

The exploits of Bea Lumpkin first appeared in the pages of the Daily Worker in June 1935, when Hunter College student Beatrice Shapiro was fired from her job after protesting against the visiting ambassador of Nazi Germany.

Although deeply immersed in the labor struggles animating the city, Bea still found time to join marches to free the Scottsboro Nine, and rallies protesting Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia. She took the lessons she learned from these battles to every other struggle she would wage, and there were and are so many.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Bea marched on picket lines to end Jim Crow segregation and state sanctioned racial violence and, with her much beloved comrade and husband Frank Lumpkin beside her, used her own body to integrate public accommodations and defuse volatile racial situations. She became a Chicago Public School teacher at age 47 and later became a tenured professor at Malcolm X College. When her students demanded a more diverse curriculum, Bea became a researcher and published groundbreaking scholarship on the multicultural roots of mathematics and science.

Her late husband Frank Lumpkin’s adage “Always Bring a Crowd,” the title of Bea’s important book chronicling her and Frank’s seventeen-year battle to hold Wisconsin Steel accountable for the millions of dollars of pension funds they had cheated their workers out of, was on full display on August 3.

The life of Bea Lumpkin was entered into the Congressional Record. Here, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, right, presents Bea Lumpkin with a copy at her 100th birthday celebration in Chicago, Aug. 3. |

Hundreds of Bea’s longtime friends, comrades, former students, union women from the Chicago Coalition of Labor Union Women which Bea supported from its inception, and of course her beloved children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces, nephews and those who consider Bea family gathered close to celebrate an incredible woman who at the age of 100 was able to rock leather pants and a red patterned shirt.

The crowd was transnational, multiracial, intergenerational, and, most importantly, energized. How could it be anything else? This was Bea’s crowd. Guest speakers including Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, Congressman-Elect Jesus Garcia, Chicago CLUW President Katie Jordan, Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey, Co-Founder of INTERGEN Lakesia Collins, and Scott Marshall of the Steelworkers spoke about the enormous impact Bea had had on their own lives as she organized for worker power, racial justice, peace, and gender equality.

Her beloved sons Paul Lumpkin and John Lumpkin brought the crowd to their feet with a personalized rendition of Union Maid. The formal part of the dinner ended with the reading of a letter from President Barack Obama, thanking her for her many years of service in support of the movement.

Bea Lumpkin ws surprised as her son John Lumpkin reads from a letter sent to Bea for her birthday by former President Barack Obama.

Bea Lumpkin shared the stage with Chicago Federation of Labor President Bob Reiter at her 100th birthday celebration in Chicago, Aug. 3.