"Isaac Myers was instrumental in galvanizing black workers into labor cooperatives and unions. His belief that blacks and whites should work cooperatively within the same union helped to forge the groundwork for eventual integration." 

"Soon after the war ended, Isaac Myers found himself unexpectedly unemployed when a group of white caulkers protested the employment of black caulkers and longshoremen.  In response to the strike, Myers proposed the creation of a union for black caulkers.  The newly created union, the Colored Caulkers Trade Union Society, decided to form a cooperative company that would own a shipyard and railroad.  Pooling their resources the workers issued stock and quickly raised $10,000 in subscriptions among black Baltimore residents.  They also borrowed another $30,000 and on February 12, 1866, they purchased a shipyard and railway which they named the Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company.  Within months the cooperative employed 300 black caulkers and received several government contracts.  Ultimately it employed a number of white workers as well."

"At the third annual convention of the National Labor Union, held in Philadelphia in August 1869, nine African American delegates made a strong appeal for including the protection of African American workers in the Union's program. One of the men, Isaac Myers, of the Colored Caulkers' Trades' Union Society, made a plea for unity among white and African American workers. Since no real action followed the rather mild resolutions of the meeting, there was formed in Washington, D.C., in December 1869, a Negro National Labor Union with Myers as its president."