Overcoming Adversity: Remembering the Cigar Factory strike of 1946

While the Cigar Factory at 701 East Bay Street currently houses a slew of restaurants, salons, and retailers, its recent designation as a National Historic Landmark ties back to a spirited fight for freedom and equality that took place at the brick industrial building 80 years ago. In October 1945, nearly 1,000 unionized workers—mostly African-American women challenging unfair labor practices based on race and gender—went on strike at the American Tobacco Company factory, as pictured here, fighting for pay raises and desegregation. The strike continued through a brutal winter, and by the end of March 1946, management finally conceded, granting modest wage increases for returning workers and loosening racial barriers. Yet the strike’s impact reverberated for decades: participants became civil rights leaders, and Lucille Simmons’s rendition of “We Will Overcome” on the picket line evolved into the movement’s iconic anthem, “We Shall Overcome.”