FRANK WALLACE

1921-2007

An exceptionally skilled organizer, negotiator, administrator of collective bargaining agreements and strike leader, Frank Wallace gave thirty-nine years of top-notch service to the union movement, helping make good times better and bad times tolerable. 

As one of the first black trade union leaders in Texas, he blazed a trail for the advancement of civil rights in the South. Between 1949 and 1951, as chief steward at Armour Packing Company in Fort Worth, Wallace negotiated contract language that desegregated restrooms, change areas, water fountains and break areas. Long before the federal civil rights laws, Wallace had achieved - through a union contract - a measure of equal rights in the workplace

The Fort Worth native served three international unions during a career that spanned 1945 to 1984. The United Packinghouse Workers, Amalgamated Meatcutters and Butcher Workmen of North America and the United Food & Commercial Workers all benefited from his expertise and persistence. 

Wallace served more than 50 local unions spanning seven states as an International representative. But his leadership on civil rights affected every member of the Texas AFL-CIO and every worker in Texas. Every union member who has come in contact with Frank Wallace is the better for it.