Dorothy Lee Bolden is a trailblazer who dedicated her life to empowering black women and elevating the essential role domestic workers have in our society. She was the founder of the National Domestic Worker’s Union of America and fought for women’s rights and to bring segregation to an end.
Bolden was born in Atlanta, Georgia on October 13, 1924. At the age of three, she suffered a fall that damaged her optic nerve and impaired her vision for the rest of her life. This affected her studies as well as her opportunities to pursue employment. Bolden’s mother was a maid and washerwoman. Bolden began working as a domestic worker alongside her mother at the age of nine for a local white family, earning $1.25 a week. Bolden would care for the family’s baby, wash diapers, and clean the house after school. By high school she had to drop out to work full time to financially support herself. She tried to attend a school in Chicago for dress designers, but her poor eyesight hindered her education and forced her to drop out and return to domestic work. During World War II, Bolden attempted other jobs, working at Sears, the National Linen Service, and a mailroom, but her poor eyesight made maintaining these jobs impossible.
Bolden was proud of her profession, but she deplored the lack of respect and feelings of powerlessness she had, and the poor treatment from the families she worked for. She would work nearly 12 hours a day, not counting her commute time, and only earned $3 per week, despite the minimum wage at the time being $1.25 per hour. In 1940, at the age of 16, Bolden experienced poor treatment firsthand. When she refused to stay past her working hours to wash dishes, as demanded by her white employer, she found herself arrested by two police officers on the grounds that she was crazy for talking back to a white woman. Her family had to bail her out at great financial expense. In 1955, while watching TV, Bolden saw the news of Rosa Parks in Alabama refusing to give up her seat. This motivated her to begin her work in activism.
Bolden approached Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to ask for his help in forming a domestic workers union. By this point, Bolden had made a name for herself as someone who could get things done. She had volunteered with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and worked on issues like school desegregation, voter registration, and housing. Dr. King told her he had faith she could do it on her own so Bolden got to work and, in the summer of 1968, over 70 domestic workers elected Bolden as the president of the National Domestic Workers Union of America (NDWUA). The NDWUA quickly enrolled thousands of domestic workers across ten cities in the United States. The NDWUA provided training in skills such as cooking, shopping, driving, child care, elder care, and first aid. It also taught its members how to negotiate for better wages and hours and created a network for finding alternate employment if negotiations were unsuccessful. Since NDWUA made registration and voting a requirement for its members, it received the recognition of local and national leaders. President Nixon appointed Bolden to serve on the advisory committee on social services and welfare. She later consulted with Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter on workers’ rights Bolden continued to work in the social services sector until her passing in Atlanta on July 14, 2005, at the age of 80.
