William (Bill) Sentner was born in St. Louis in 1907 to Russian-Jewish immigrants who worked in the garment industry. A bright student, he received a scholarship to attend Washington University. He studied architecture at the University until 1927 when his father died and he was forced to leave St. Louis to find work before completing his degree. He eventually ended up on the West Coast, where he encountered a radical seaman culture that was strong on militant organizing and exposed him to socialism, communism, and the writings of Carl Marx. Sentner eventually returned to St. Louis and became involved in the Unemployed Movement and the Trade Union Unity League.

One of Sentner’s first major successes in the labor movement was with the nut-picker’s strike of 1933, in which black and white female workers united to strike against low wages and racialized pay scales. The strike, led by African American women from the Funston Nut Factory, effectively engaged other working-class community members, who brought feasts to the women on the picket lines to demonstrate that they were prepared for a long fight if necessary. The workers eventually received all of their demands, except for the recognition of their union. The community organizing techniques used in this strike laid the groundwork for future organization efforts.  Sentner organized the District 8 CIO United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers (Local 813) in 1935.

For the next fifteen years, Sentner engaged in many other organizing efforts, sometimes risking his own health and safety to fight for a living wage for others. After one strike with the Metal Workers Industrial Union, Sentner was thrown in jail and brutally beaten, after which he decided to officially become a card-carrying member of the communist party.

After WWII, Sentner was accused of being a part of a communist conspiracy and fought a long battle against anti-communist sentiment before a loss of support forced him to forego seeking reelection to his position as head of the union at the end of 1948.

(Biography extracted from "Celebrating Labor Day with the Sentner Papers" by Rose Miyatsu, September 1, 2018)

Note written by Rose Miyatsu