Townsend, << TOWN zuhnd, >> Willard Saxby (1895-1957), was one of the first African American labor leaders. He improved the wages and working conditions of redcaps (railroad baggage porters). Townsend helped redcaps gain a fixed salary, plus retirement and insurance benefits.
Townsend was born on Dec. 4, 1895, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and began working as a redcap there when he was 19 years old. In 1936, he was elected the first president of the Auxiliary of Redcaps, a union that belonged to the American Federation of Labor (AFL). In 1937, he became the first president of an independent union, the International Brotherhood of Redcaps. It became the United Transport Service Employees in 1940 and joined the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in 1942. Also in 1942, he became the first black member of the CIO executive board. When the AFL and CIO merged in 1955, he was named a vice president of the AFL-CIO.
Townsend was a vice president of the Urban League and an officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He was coauthor of What the Negro Wants (1944). He died on Feb. 3, 1957.
