Meizhu Lui

Meizhu Lui is a life-long “professional troublemaker!” She was a rank and file labor activist and the first Asian woman to be elected President of a union local. Concerned with growing class and race inequalities, she became executive director of United for a Fair Economy, where she served when she was recognized as a Barr Fellow in 2007. Meizhu then became Program Director for the national Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Initiative.

While she co-authored The Color of Wealth: the Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide, published articles and research papers, and appeared in print and visual media, her favorite means of communication was through popular education workshops with community folks. In all her work, she has foregrounded economic inequities for peoples of color, their root causes, and policy solutions to close the gaps. She is a founding member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and is currently the Board Chair of the historic Highlander Research and Education Center in Tennessee.