Norton Joins Call for DC Workers at Smithsonian African American Museum

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)DC Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton has joined the call for the Smithsonian African American Museum to ensure that D.C. workers are hired for museum construction. The day after District residents picketed the museum construction site (DC Residents Protest Discrimination by African American Museum Contractor, UC 6/13/2012), Norton sent a letter to both the Smithsonian and Clark Construction. “I am very concerned by reports and protests about a lack of D.C. residents working at the construction site” said Norton in her letter. Citing the museum’s “important symbolic significance to District residents and to African Americans nationwide, both of whom suffer from particularly high unemployment right now,” Norton demanded a meeting to discuss management’s hiring practices. Click here for the Washington Post’s  report and vivid photo gallery from last week’s protest. - screen shot from DC Jobs or Else action video