Sidney Hillman inspired a foundation for a better America

Person: Sidney Hillman
Lived: 1887–1946
Field: Labour movement
From: Lithuanian-American

The story

Sidney Hillman led the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America from its founding in 1914 and became one of the country's most important labour leaders, a founder of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and an adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt. In May 1946 he addressed his union's 15th Biennial Convention. Two months later, on July 10, 1946, he died of a heart attack at his summer home on Long Island, aged 59.

His passing was felt as a deep personal loss by people in many walks of life, and the union was flooded with requests to create a living memorial to the man who had become a spokesman for progressive industrial democracy. On November 17, 1946, the union's General Executive Board voted to establish the Sidney Hillman Foundation, and on December 11 it contributed the first $100,000.

Other gifts followed from Amalgamated members, locals and joint boards, from the Textile Workers Union that Hillman had helped create, and even from clothing manufacturers, who recognised that he had done more than anyone to bring stability to a chaotic industry. Within a few months $1,000,000 had been raised, and early in 1947 the foundation made its first grants. In its early years it gave tens of thousands of dollars for scholarships, research and lecture series on college campuses, and it made several large grants for medical research at the Sidney Hillman Health Centers in New York and Philadelphia.

Deeply concerned with the responsibilities of a free press, the foundation launched the Hillman Prizes in 1950. The first daily newspaper winner was the liberal columnist Murray Kempton. The prizes now honour books, broadcasting, magazines, newspapers, photojournalism and opinion writing in the United States, with a separate Canadian prize. From 1949 to 1995 the foundation also honoured public figures who pursued social justice. Since 2009 it has given a monthly Sidney Award for investigative journalism, and it has added awards for public interest law and labour history.

The foundation has sought to illuminate the great issues of each era, from lasting peace and decent housing to medical care, employment security, civil liberties and the fight against discrimination. More than seventy-five years after his death, it continues to reward reporting that serves the common good.