Today is May 1st- International Workers’ Day. NCEJN will be in Raleigh at the May Day event – to demand justice and dignity for workers and to protest against the inhumane conditions that workers face in this country.
In today’s reflection, Mary “Ma Mary Hill” graciously agreed to share her speech with us. This transcribed speech was given at the BWFJ Banquet in April that Rania and Luma attended. Ma Mary is the co-founder of Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment or C.A.U.S.E., the union movement for better pay and working conditions at Amazon’s RDU1 warehouse where she works in Garner, NC.
I am honored to be here, and see familiar faces and unfamiliar faces on this 40th Anniversary of MLK’s assassination and the labor struggle. I remember MLK. I would like to thank brother Ajamu and the people who invited me to speak. Thank you so much, it is such an honor.
I can’t accept any credit, I am a passionate person, if it weren’t for God almighty, that I talk to and pray to daily, especially working in the place that I work, I would not be here today.
My name is Mary Hill, my coworkers are the ones who called me Ma Mary because I always try to make sure that everyone is ok. Because by God, If you’re my friend or my coworker, if you’re not ok, Ma Mary’s not ok. I want to thank everyone for coming, I want to thank UE150 for the invitation.
I am a product of the Jim Crow South. I was born in a town as big as a speck- in Sibley, Louisiana, 30 miles east of Shreveport, and about 25 miles west of Monroe, Louisiana. I went to Grambling State for a while, but college was just not for me. I stand before you today as a mother, as a sister, an organizer, and co-founder of C.A.U.S.E., Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity & Empowerment.
I wrote some notes, but I usually speak from the heart because I have such a passion for this, so I ask you to bear with me if I go off track.
Mostly I stand before you today as a believer in the divine justice that guides our steps and strengthens our fight. We are part of a legacy built on our ancestors. You heard mention of MLK, Rosa Parks, the Panthers, Angela Davis- those were warriors. They’re not just our ancestors, but warriors that fought for dignity, freedom and equality. If it weren’t for their sacrifices and struggles back then, we wouldn’t be at this banquet today. A lot of the amenities and privileges that we have today, we would not have. Are you aware that black people just got the vote in 1965- that wasn’t that long ago people! Those were warriors that fought for those things. In the words of one of my favorite princesses Fannie Lou Hamer who once said:”Nobody is free, until everybody’s free.”
We’re not free, my brothers and sisters. We’ve been asleep, a lot of us have. When she spoke those words, she was by no means just speaking about political freedom, no! She was talking about the freedom and the freedoms that God intended for all of us- each and every one of us sitting here, your children and your children’s children.
Freom is not given by the oppressor, that’s not freedom. They’re giving us crumbs to lull us into a sense of complacency. And we have gotten much too comfortable in that place of complacency- with the crumbs that the oppressor continues to give us and make us think that we are free. But the freedom that we are fighting for is the freedom where we stand in our truth, where we stand in our power. See, that’s what a lot of us don’t realize. How many of you know that we really have the power?
They wouldn’t see a dime if it weren’t for us, the workers. They wouldn’t make the money that they make if we didn’t get up and go to work. No, and we need to remind them of that. We forgot and they’re banking on us not remembering. But it’s time that we wake up, people, it’s long overdue.
It’s the freedom that we claim when we stand in our faith. We are fighting to protect what is rightfully ours. I am not talking about material possessions, no, far from it, I am talking about our humanity, our dignity, and our rightful place in this world. We are fighting also for our children, for our families, for our communities. It’s bigger than us.
Can you think about the big picture? It’s not just the right here, the right now. What were our predecessors, like the panthers and SNCC, fighting for when they were fighting? Weren’t they fighting for dignity, respect, justice?
It’s 2025, and I hear one of my coworkers talking about being called a nigger on the job. I was working at my station and I heard this voice say “Hey! Hey you!, and she was hollering loudly, and I thought she was talking to someone behind me. I didn’t think she was talking to me. She said “hey I need to talk to you”. And I said: “Excuse me, are you talking to me? Where I am from “Hay is for horses and I don’t see any here. She looked at me and her face turned red. I said: “What happened to manners? You walk up and introduce yourself and say can I have a word with you?”. This is 2025, and at RDU1, things of that nature are still happening.
Why is this still happening, in 2025, we are fighting against the same white privilege that our predecessors were fighting against. Something went wrong and sent us to sleep and it’s time we woke up! Wake up! This has got to stop. Like Ida B. Wells said: “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
On the lies of the oppressor are risen the injustices that we still face today. They haven’t changed much from the 30’s, from the 40’s. I remember what my grandparents used to talk about. Being from the Jim Crow South, I remember seeing the signs that say “Colored”. I used to ask my mom: “What is colored? Are we colored, mama?” I didn’t understand, I was a little kid. We used to have to go to the back to get the day-old meats that they didn’t want.
I remember seeing the hanging trees, and the nooses, and the crosses, I remember. I am going to tell you my age, that’s ok, April 25th, I will be 71 years young! I battled cancer and I got it in remission, and I am battling oppression!
We must stay firm, now is not the time for the weak willed or the faint of heart, we need to stand firm, we need to unite and we need to stand grounded, my brothers and sisters, in the truth that we are God’s children. We are created in his image and deserving of every gift and every right that he promised us.
How many of you believe that? I believe that in every fiber of my being or I would not be standing before you today, bringing you this message. We deserve the equalities and the fullness of life, everyone does, our families do, our children and grandchildren.
And as Angela Davis said: “I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change, I am changing the things I cannot accept”!
Enough is enough, we deserve a world where our children don’t have to fight the same battles that we are having to fight like we’re doing right now.
We’ve been going backwards for so long, fighting the same battles that our predecessors fought, it doesn’t make sense to me. What’s the motto of this event today? “Hold the line?” We need to pick it right up, hang onto it, and pass the baton to future generations. I am so glad to see so many young people involved in this movement. Let’s give them a round of applause.
If we don’t pass the baton to them, Lord God help us, we are lost forever. This is a must, we’ve got to do this, we deserve a world where freedom is not a gift but a right. Because we are the beloved children of the most high god and no system has the right to deny us what God has promised.
Now more than ever brothers and sisters, right now, today, April 5, 2025, hear me and hear me well, it is time more than time, it is absolutely necessary to organize the workers of this nation. The workers who for so long have been the backbone of our communities, who have long been the ones who carry the weight of labor. Workers keep the wheels of industry and service turning. But too often those workers are exploited, overlooked and treated less than humans.
We must come together and unite in solidarity and demand what is ours, fair wages, respect, dignity and an end to exploitation. When we organize, we become stronger than any individual force. As workers we are the ones who build, who serve, but when we divide, we don’t come together and unite, and work in solidarity, we are weak.
The system thrives on this. Years ago, when the colonialists had all the slaves and the plantations, do you know about William Lynch? He had a set of rules on how to keep the slaves under control. One thing he told them is “keep them divided, pit them against each other. Pit the male slaves against the women slaves, and turn the women slaves against the male slaves. Teach them that we, the slave owners, are the only ones they can trust. And once you get that steeped into their minds, you got them”. And so much of that is still going on today. How many of you remember that song ‘Free your mind and the rest will follow’ by En Vogue? Free your mind. For so long we’ve been asleep, and we’ve been conditioned to think the way the oppressor wants us to think. And we’ve gotten so complacent in that lie, it’s time to wake up. The one thing that we’ve got to do is organize!
Harriet Tubman once said:“I freed a thousand slaves; I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.” Where it’s at is your mind.
In closing, I just want to leave you with this if I may. It’s absolutely essential that everyone that is here today, go back to your workplaces, your family, your communities, your homes, and organize. Take action. Without action nothing will change. Without change nothing changes.
So I beseech each and everyone of you, when you go back to wherever you’re from, to your workplace, organize. Whether it’s your church or your family, they will support you, organize. The time is now, it’s now brothers and sisters. If not now, then when?
Thank you
