Ninety years ago this May, eighteen-year-old food worker Carrie Smith marched onto the shop floor of a nut processing factory in St Louis and initiated one of the most successful labor actions of the Great Depression. “The heavy stuff is here,” Smith said, observing the urgency and decisiveness of the moment upon them. “Get your hats and let’s go.”

Over the course of eight days, the Funsten Nut Strike put two thousand predominantly black female industrial workers on picket lines across five factories. The strike was led and organized by radical black working-class women — including Smith, who confronted a foreman to make sure her coworkers would exit safely.

On that first morning, Carrie Smith argued with the boss for two hours before taking to the picket line with a Bible in one hand and a brick in the other. “Girls,” she announced, “we can’t lose!”