Political Quotes

“70 years ago today President Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act into law. After two decades of devastating Supreme Court opposition, a Supreme Court in those days with a similar bias against workers that our Supreme Court has today-- think of Ledbetter and so many other cases they have made. But after two decades of devastating Supreme Court opposition, and 3 years after that Supreme Court declared the National Industrial Recovery Act unconstitutional, Americans finally were assured of a minimum wage, reasonable work hours, and an end to child exploitation. Senator Hugo Black, who sat at this desk in the Senate in the 1920s and 1930s, was fundamental in this historic achievement. Black, in the early 1930s, prior to Roosevelt becoming President, had introduced legislation calling for a 6-hour workday. It was considered so radical and so controversial that the 8-hour workday signed into law by President Roosevelt was considered more reasonable and more palatable, and the Congress went along. Black, by this time, by the time the minimum wage actually went into effect, was a member of the Supreme Court appointed by President Roosevelt. Black, in those years leading up, joined with President Roosevelt, Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, and labor leader Sidney Hillman to craft legislation that would withstand judicial challenge. It was not an easy fight, but progressives stood firm for social justice and for economic justice.”