Labor organizers promote the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, outside an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, on March 12, 2021. An attempt by thousands of mostly Black workers to unionize at a fulfillment center gives new life to the labor movement. A majority vote of “yes” would have officially created the first union at an Amazon warehouse in the United States. This relationship between Black workers and unions in the South continued growing into the 1950s and ’60s as the Civil Rights Movement gained traction. Bessemer, Alabama, is home to a sprawling 855,000-square-foot Amazon warehouse known as BHM1.