Electrician’s Trade: Black History, Family History

It was on this day, eight years ago at 95-years-young, that Charles Vernon Stewart passed away and in honor of Black History Month, we wish to share his story.

While there have been many movers and shakers in our industry, today, we pay homage to a Tuscaloosa, Ala. man – a pioneer in desegregating the electrical trade, the first African American admitted to an electrician trade school, and a successful Chicago business owner.

Stewart, born in 1910, was raised in an era where electrical work was popularly thought to be a white man’s job; however, he and his stepfather, Sam Taylor, held a different opinion.

During this time, publishers refused to mail home-study magazines to black households yielding self-education all but impossible. Taylor, however, befriended a Greek man who ordered the necessary publications, which allowed Taylor to begin an underground movement to educate blacks in the electricians trade; Stewart was just 11 years old.

Following this secret self-education process, Taylor and his “underground” students passed every test and began working alongside other electricians in Chicago, Ill.

Through tenacity and determination, Stewart was the first African American admitted into Greer College, a trade school for electricians. In 1922, he assisted Taylor in establishing the Taylor Electric Company and five years later became the first African American to graduate from Greer College.

Black electricians in Illinois were not allowed to join the local union and often faced severe vandalism from competing white electricians, which forced them to redo work at their own expense.

In response, Stewart organized a group of black electricians and successfully appealed to the government to grant a charter, which would allowed them not only legal rights to practice as electricians, but also legally stopped competing electricians from destroying their work.

In 1934, Congress forced the local union to desegregate and both Stewart and Taylor were among the first three percent to join the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union 134.

Thank you for your leadership, Charles!