Velma Hopkins

Velma Hopkins (February 24, 1909 – March 19, 1996) was a labor rights activist.

She was a member of Local 22 of the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers of America-CIO (FTA). During the 1940s, she helped organize and lead a labor campaign agent R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. This campaign fought for better working conditions and pay for African American workers who experienced long hours in hot working conditions while breathing in tobacco dust. Hopkins helped lead a protest that over 10,000 workers attended. Apart from that, she also helped organize a labor strike. The work she did inspired many other people such as State Sen. Earline Parmon. Parmon says she partly owns her career to Hopkins as her work not only helped people who were directly affected by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. but also expanded to other social justice issues such as voting rights and integration.