Oliver Harvey (born 1909) was an African American janitor at Duke University and founding president of the Local 77 chapter of American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO. He spearheaded the movement to unionize Duke University employees during the 1960s.
The son of a land-owning farmer, Oliver Harvey grew up in Franklinton, North Carolina, which was at the time dominated by the textile and tobacco industries. [1] When his father lost his land in 1933, Harvey moved to Durham, NC to find employment and worked a series of temporary jobs. [1] In 1936, he took a job at the American Tobacco Company, which was in the process of unionizing. [1] Refusing to join the union on account of its policy of segregation, Harvey was soon fired. [1] He subsequently worked as an assistant at Watts Hospital, and in 1943 began a job at the Krueger Bottling Company, which had been hiring African Americans because of the wartime labor shortage, and which had a segregated union. [2] Harvey helped initiate a strike in favor of desegregation, garnering the support of the company's white employees. [2]
After a brief stint running his own restaurant, Harvey in 1951 began working as a janitor at Duke University, where he soon began advocating for better wages and treatment of housekeeping staff. [2] [3] In 1956 he made headlines when he and fellow Duke employee Beatrice Noore disobeyed a bus driver's orders to give up their seats to white students [4] and in 1960, he participated in a sit-in with North Carolina College (now North Carolina Central University) students at Rose's downtown department store in Durham. [5] Harvey also met with Martin Luther King Jr. during King's 1964 visit to Duke University. [5]
In 1965, Harvey initiated the formation of the Duke University Employees Benevolent Society; after searching for a national union with which to affiliate, the DUEBS eventually chose the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, becoming the Local 77 chapter. [6] [7] [8] [9] That year, the DUEBS delivered a petition to Duke President Douglas Knight demanding wage increases and benefits for the Duke housekeeping staff, issues remaining prominent in Duke University politics throughout the 1960s. [6] [7]
In the early 1970s, Harvey was promoted to a supervisory position at Duke. [6] [10] After he retired, he volunteered as an organizer for Duke University Medical Center; in 1978, he took a job with the AFSCME as a labor organizer, also in the DUMC. [6] Eventually he asked to be taken off the AFSCME payroll. [6]