Macon Magazine

64 maconmagazine.com | August/September 2024 who came down to Macon as part of NWDA's Georgia chapter, believes their organization is looking for solutions: "We are advocating for our care workers, and we are demanding more money and more respect on our jobs. We want the same thing as any other job gets – sick leave, insurance, vacation pay, and a living wage – because we are determined." With this mural, Macon joins regions like Houston, Miami, Long Island, and a four-part art tour in Atlanta in having NWDA-commissioned public artworks that uplift the contributions of care workers, particularly highlighting Black and immigrant voices. The Macon mural features a QR code that visitors can scan to learn more about the policy goals of the NWDA. This advocacy is already working, locally in Georgia and nationally. In 2023, the White House issued a proclamation that April should be designated Care Workers Recognition Month – and they didn't stop there. Making the designation more than just a symbolic action, President Biden also signed an executive order, with NWDA care workers and other advocates in the audience, that contained 50+ directives to different federal agencies to support caregivers and increase access to high-quality care. Biden has followed up this year, delivering remarks on the care economy during Care Workers Recognition Month. This May, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp also decided to address the care crisis with the upcoming state budget. This includes higher wages for adult care workers, with increases as high as $6 per hour, as well as over nine million dollars in additional funding for affordable childcare. G E O R G I A ' S C A R E W O R K E R S " D R E A M I N B L A C K " F O R A B E T T E R F U T U R E The Georgia chapter of the NWDA, who organized and paid for the mural and put on the unveiling, is particularly special. It has the distinction of being the first chapter of the organization, which was founded in 2007 and now encompasses over 60 affiliate organizations across the country and seven local chapters. In fact, the idea for the NWDA came out of a four-day conference gathering in Atlanta in 2007, where several local organizing groups decided an alliance would be the best way to bring their cause to the national stage. The Georgia chapter is also the birthplace of one of NWDA's initiatives, the We Dream in Black program, which specifically centers the voices of Black, Afro- Latina, and Afro-descendant care workers across the United States. The initiative's mission, called the Unbossed Agenda, states: "We believe a better future is possible, one in which Black women and caregivers experience abundant joy, safety, and well- being." The name nods to political trailblazer Shirley Chisholm, whose campaign slogan was "Unbought and unbossed." We Dream in Black honors the legacy of Chisholm as well as an icon closer to home, Georgia's own Dorothy Bolden. Bolden was a Civil Rights era icon, working alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from her hometown in Atlanta. Bolden began care work at the age of nine alongside her mother, earning $1.25 per week washing diapers. These humble beginnings propelled Bolden to found a union for domestic workers that eventually recruited over 13,000 members. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution called her the "most successful organizer" of workers in the sector. She told the paper in 1986: "We aren't Aunt Jemima women, and I sure to God don't want people to think we are. We are politically strong and independent." The priorities of the Unbossed Agenda bring their legacies into the 21st century and include transforming domestic work with professional wages and enforcement of labor rights, adding infrastructure for thriving communities like universal family care and healthcare, and disrupting harm that affects Black domestic workers such as environmental justice and workplace harassment. Unique Clay, a childcare worker in attendance who attended Mercer University, believes in the We ABOVE Rhonda Miller, who joined the NWDA during the June organizing day in Macon, signs her name on a message of support. "When we go to work, we should feel proud about what we do"

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