One time word got around that they needed people at the Local 6 hall. Curtis McClain, who was president of Local 6 in the 1970s asked us to picket this place at Eighth and Mission in San Francisco. Pretty soon here comes a crowd of at least 20 scabs. Leading ’em was this big bastard. I went up to him and said, "That’s far enough, scab!"

Next thing I know I’m being restrained by a couple of cops. I’m struggling to get free and this cop raises his club. He was gonna bust my head open.

Well, Curtis grabbed that club with both hands. The cop said, "Are you trying to release my prisoner?" Curtis said, "No, but you are not going to hit him with that club!" LeRoy King was up in that cop’s face too.

I’ll never forget that. There’s a labor leader for you!"

—Oral History of Ted "Whitey" Kelm,
ILWU Local 10

Curtis McClain, ILWU Secretary-Treasurer Emeritus, died Nov. 6 after a long illness. He was 80 years old. He was part of the first generation of African-American leaders to break the color line in the West Coast labor movement.

McClain’s service as an ILWU officer began in 1960 when he was elected Local 6 Business Agent. For at least 15 years before that he had been an activist and steward at Schmidt Lithography, a large Local 6 house in San Francisco. He was elected Local 6 President in 1969 and International Secretary-Treasurer on 1977. He was re-elected to that position five times, retiring in 1991.

"Curtis was a class act," said Keith Eickman, who served as Secretary-Treasurer of Local 6 during many of the years McClain was president. "He was really passionate about the union and all the things it stood for. But he was strategic, he was careful and he cared. He was a good man."

"He was a natural leader," remembered longtime Local 6 leader Leroy King, who, with McClain was one of the first generation of post-war African-American ILWU leaders. "He helped lead the efforts to break the color line, not only in the ILWU, but in other unions and in the community. He was an outstanding negotiator and union officer. And he took care of business for the members."

Over nearly 20 years as a leader in the Bay Area warehouse industry, McClain compiled an enviable record of achievement on behalf of the members of Local 6 which, at that time, had as many as 9,500 members with offices in San Francisco, Oakland, Crockett, San Mateo, San Jose and Stockton.

McClain was overwhelmingly elected International Secretary-Treasurer in 1977. Working closely with President Jim Herman and Vice-Presidents Rudy Rubio, Randy Vekich and George Martin, McClain helped pilot the union back into the AFL-CIO and carefully managed the union’s financial resources. He continued to speak for the ILWU on major political and social issues. Upon his retirement, he was named Secretary-Treasurer Emeritus.

McClain, the young rank-and-filer.

Curtis McClain was born in Akron, Ohio, July 1, 1925, one of 17 children of Judge and Otealea McClain. Curtis’s father was a rubber worker who, although he worked for several large rubber companies as a skilled moldman, could never make it into membership in the craft union in that trade. Still Curtis remembered, "I often used to hear him talk about the good of a union, even though he did not belong to one."

Finishing high school early in World War II, McClain was drafted into the Navy as a Cooks’ Helper. By the time he was discharged in San Francisco at the end of the war, he had risen to the rank of First Gunner. The war changed the course of McClain’s life, as it did for many African-Americans of that generation. As he would often say, "it was about how come I can fight against racism all over the world, but be subject to it when I come home."

Settling in San Francisco after his discharge, he married the late Olean Avery McClain. They had two sons, Rene and Charles. With a young family to support, he was interested in learning a skilled trade. But these jobs remained closed to African-Americans. So he did the next best thing. He went down to the Local 6 hall in San Francisco where, as he remembered, "color was no barrier" and landed a vacation relief job in the warehouse at Schmidt Lithography, a 750-man, multi-union print shop.

"I went into the paper seasoning department where work was sweaty, hot and dusty. Although it was the last place I wanted to work, I needed the job, so I stayed for 14 years," he said.

McClain and International President Jimmy Herman, 1989.

Doors kept closing. "I wanted to work in the bull gang," he said. "The job paid more money on a straight time basis and you had the opportunity to work overtime and you could operate a lift or a jitney. But when I asked to be sent to the bull gang, I’d be told I was too important to be moved…Someone else would then come from the hall, would just happen to be white and would work the bull gang and get the overtime pay."

McClain continued to search for a means of advancement, and after five years he was made foreman. But he wanted more.

"I had hopes of being admitted to an apprenticeship program in the printing or the electrical trades once they got to know me and saw that I was really interested," he said. "But that’s where you really encountered the old runaround. You didn’t get into the lithographers’ or the printers’ union, you didn’t get into the electrical department. I saw many people come in, begin an apprenticeship and become journeymen. I had electrical training, but I was never allowed into the trades."

McClain with President Herman and International Vice-President Rudy Rubio (center behind) at the 1984 anti-apartheid demonstration at UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza.

McClain was not alone in his frustration. Many of the early black members of Local 6—Dick Moore, Leon Cooper, Roland Corley and LeRoy King—shared the same experiences. Local 6’s racial politics were better than in many unions. But it was painful to be passed over time and time again.

Calling themselves The Frontiers-men, a group of African-American members began meeting to talk about their common problems.

"We discussed grievances we thought were not being handled properly," McClain said. "We often heard of people being bypassed for jobs and at that time you did not find blacks in the vast majority of the good classified categories."

McClain with his predecessor International Secretary-Treasurer Lou Goldblatt during master warehouse negotiations.

There was a feeling that African-Americans with grievances or other problems were not always represented aggressively by the union. And an increasing number of African-American members were interested in assuming leadership roles in the union.

"We did a great deal of good not only for the black union members, but for the union as a whole. Things worked out as they should have, in a more democratic fashion," he recalled in the early 1970s. "We began working together on the job, forming good house committees and a strong steward system and electing good people who were going to work for the whole union."

These years, the late 1940s and early 1950s, were hard years for Local 6. There were short strikes in 1947 and 1948 and then a 111-day strike in 1949. There were attacks by the federal government, and raids by other unions. Articulate, informed and conscientious, McClain was drawn more into the leadership of Local 6. He became a steward and a member of the Schmidt warehouse negotiating committee.

Local 6 President McClain with other Local 6 officers Keith Eickman and Leroy King picketing the NLRB at the San Francisco Federal Building, 1971.

With the support of the Frontiersmen and urged by friends and supporters like International Secretary-Treasurer Louis Goldblatt, Local 6 President Chili Duarte, Local 6 Secretary-Treasurer George Valter, and other friends like Billy Lufrano and Keith Eickman, he ran for business agent. Three times he lost, but finally, in 1960, he was elected as the first African-American business agent in the history of Local 6. He was re-elected through the 1960s, with the highest vote of any candidate. He was elected Local 6 president in December 1969.

"For many of us in the next generation, Curt McClain was a mentor and a friend," said International Secretary-Treasurer Willie Adams. "He supported young leaders. He wanted the union to go on. He had endless patience. We are going to miss him."

Curtis is survived by his sons Rene McClain (and his wife Doris), Charles McClain and Eric McClain; his dearest friend Mary Alice Bynum and her son Joe Benjamin; three grandchildren, Shawn, Curtis and Sylvia; one great-grandson, Donovan; two brothers, George and Henry McClain, and two sisters, Lucile Jingles and Kate Jackson, countless nieces and nephews and a host of friends throughout the ILWU.

McClain, right, with Congressman John Burton, center and longshore Local 10's Carl Smith.

McClain, right, with Local President Cleophas Williams and Eleanor McGovern at a George McGovern for President fundraiser in 1972.