Part One: Black History Month Series – Unsung ILA Activist Led In Protecting Black Workers

By Leonard E. Colvin
Chief Reporter Emeritus
New Journal and Guide

The 2025 theme of Black History Month (BHM) is “African-Americans and Labor,” focusing on work of all kinds, which intersects with the collective experiences of Black people since Colonial America.

Work, whether it was the traditional agricultural labor of enslaved Africans that fed and built this nation,  debates on the importance of vocational training, self-help/entrepreneurship in Black communities, or organized labor’s role in fighting both economic and social injustice,   the work of Black people, has been transformational throughout the world.

According to the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History (ASALH), which devised it, this theme looks at work related to compensated labor in factories, the military, sports, government agencies, office buildings, public service, and private homes.

It also looks at leadership and activism, which organized and protected Black workers from abuse and secured their right to earn a living wage through their labor over the decades.

Today the 1,500 members of the International Longshoremen’s (ILA) Union Local 1248 in Norfolk are part of the 85,000 national membership.

Once called Stevedores, Longshoremen have been deemed the “backbone of global commerce.” For decades they toiled on the piers loading and unloading billions of dollars of goods from ships from around the world.

Advertisement

ILA 1248 over time has evolved into a union with a large African-American membership and historic ties to the community. Its members earn a wage that has elevated them into the middle class.

The history of the Black ILA members is shadowed by racial bias and abuses which cast them as second-class citizens before and during Jim Crow.

One man who led the effort to improve the working conditions of his fellow union from the early 1900s until an untimely death his in the mid-40s was George William Millner.

George W. Privott is Millner’s grandson. He is 77 and lives in Baltimore with his family. Privott, born in Norfolk, attended Booker T. Washington High School, and attended Hampton University before migrating to Washington, D.C., to work for the federal government.

Privott said he does not know why his grandfather is not as known as well as other important Black union leaders such as  A. Phillip Randolph, David E. Grange, or locally, Edward L. Brown, a long-time executive of the local and national ILA.

“I was born a year after he died (1946). My mother  was very proud of his work, and would always talk to me about him,”  Privott said during a recent interview with the GUIDE. “I will never forget that.  I want current and future generations to know his work and legacy before I close my eyes.”

Privott has old documents, yellowing articles from the GUIDE, and pictures of his grandfather that he is eager to share with the media to inspire articles to educate the public.

Advertisement

Privott said his grandfather was educated, outgoing, and realized Black men and their labor were a valued asset, but historically exploited to enrich White people.

Before the ILA, Black men filled the bellies of huge, cargo ships with millions of dollars of goods bound for American and overseas ports.

However, these men were not paid adequately for their dangerous and backbreaking work.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was successful because Blacks united to impose financial pressure by not riding the buses until segregation was ended.

In the 20s, 30s and 40s, Millner and other ILA leaders applied the same formula to win better benefits for dock workers.

He skillfully persuaded the White leaders of the ILA to use strikes to strategically withhold the valuable “Black and White labor on the piers to gain concessions,” his grandson said.

“They had several strikes or threats of them, before, from the late 1900 until he died,” said Privott.  “He took a great personal risk,  going up against powerful people in the shipping industry, local government, and White-owned businesses in Norfolk, especially. These actions enabled ILA to win better compensation, work conditions, and respect for their labor then and now.”

Advertisement

Millner and other Black labor and rights leaders realized America’s entry into WWII, meant Black labor on the docks, in the factories, and the battlefield was even more valuable.

Millner and his ILA administrative offices were located on Church Street and later Princess Anne Road in Norfolk in the Black community.

Privott said ILA bosses from New York huddled at Norfolk’s swanky Monticello Hotel when they were in town. It was located where the Federal Building sits now.

It was segregated, and unless Blacks were cleaning or cooking, they could not get a room. And they entered the building via the back entrance, during the 30s when Millner was at the height of his power.

But the big White ILA bosses told city leaders if “Papa George,” my grandfather, could not enter the hotel, and be served, they would take their business elsewhere.

My grandfather could enter the building when and how he wanted.”

George William Millner was born May 30, 1879, in Danville, Virginia.

Advertisement

He attended Danville public schools and later Petersburg Normal and Collegiate Institute (now Va. State University).

Privott, in an article written about his grandfather, said, “As a young man he learned the barber’s trade at which he worked several years.”

Millner  migrated to Norfolk in the early 1900s and in 1912 he went to work as a “coal trimmer” at the Sewells Point Shipping Pier, during the early days of the Norfolk Naval base.

Later the Coal Shipping operation moved to Lambert’s Point.

Coal Trimmers worked in the cargo hold of the big transport ships using shovels to even out the coal so the ship would not tilt, and could sail evenly.

In 1914 in a bold move, the Black workers formed the Coal Trimmers Union.

Millner was elected its first President but was fired for leading a protest and threatening to strike for higher wages.

Advertisement

In response, the Trimmers went on strike. The shipping companies and associated businesses were losing thousands of dollars each day.

Under pressure, Millner was reinstated and the Trimmers got more money.

Later the Coal Trimmers Union merged with the International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA), becoming a multiracial group.

According to Privott’s records, Millner was elected the first Black President of ILA Local 1248.

Later, he was elected Regional Vice President of the entire union, responsible for union business from Baltimore to New Orleans.

Millner worked to recruit and increase union membership by several thousand Black and White men.

Under Millner’s leadership, the union won benefits such as guaranteed wages, minimum hours, hazardous pay, overtime and holiday time.

Advertisement

He commuted back and forth to New York and other East Coast locales as an ILA leader.

At home Millner was also a director of the Union Commercial Bank of Norfolk and President of the Norfolk Civil Liberties League which was headquartered at the Eureka Lodge 5 of the Norfolk Elks.

Millner was a member of Queen Street Baptist Church and later First Baptist Church Bute Street. He was also active in the Masons and the Knights of Pythias.

Mr. Millner died of a heart attack on July 10, 1946 in New York City while attending a union meeting. He is buried in Norfolk’s Calvary Cemetery.

“He was, I would say, the first open and assertive Labor Civil Rights leader in Norfolk,” Privott said.

“He knew the value of Black labor to the community and the nation.  He respected the Black worker and worked hard to help them gain better pay and respect and that is his legacy.”

Advertisement