The Wash

In 1881, Black laundresses in Atlanta led a strike weeks before the International Cotton Exposition came to town, demanding compensation of $1 per dozen pounds of laundry. The Atlanta Washerwomen’s Strike of 1881 was the first successful interracial, organized labor strike of the post-Civil War era. The Wash offers an intimate and often funny portrait at the ordinary women who initiated and led the strike, transforming themselves from workers to fighters.