Terese Bouey

Terese Bouey worked for ACORN from 1978 through 1983, in Houston, Memphis, New Orleans, and Columbia SC, with short stints as well in Lake Charles LA, Tampa, and Washington DC. In this interview Terese talks about how she learned to organize, her role as Head Organizer of one of ACORN’s largest organizations, in Louisiana; and her work building a new ACORN organization in Columbia SC. She also discusses what it meant to be one of ACORN’s earliest African-American Head Organizers, and the value of being part of a national organization. Terese then discusses her subsequent career as a union organizer and with SEIU, organizing nursing homes and on the Justice for Janitors campaign, and her work with the AFL-CIO and its Organizing Institute; Terese talks about how her ACORN organizing career was foundational to her success in these projects.