News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The President of the Cookeville-Putnam NAACP Branch awarded the 2024 Benjamin L. Hooks Keeper of the Flame Award at the 115th NAACP National Convention.
Tom Savage given the award for his efforts in continuing the fight for workers’ rights and civil rights. Savage said as an activist it is in his DNA to continue the fight.
“Workers rights are being attacked in this day in time,” Savage said. “And civil rights are being attacked in this day in time to where we are losing rights instead of maintaining what we have.”
Savage said the award reflects the hard work that he and multiple organizations have done to maintain rights for workers and minorities.
This past year Savage helped workers at the General Motors Parts Distribution Center in Memphis and the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga advocate for better wages and benefits. Savage said he is shifting his focus to getting people out to vote and says there is still more work to be done.
“There is no such thing as working enough,” Savage said. “You are only good as your last day. Right now in the NAACP and the Labor Unions, we are doing a full-court press to make sure that we align ourselves with people who want to vote. We talk about the issues and we want to make sure our folks take their souls to the polls.”
Savage worked at Cummins Filtration in Cookeville from 1970 to 2002. Savage then served as the Region 8 Representative in the United Automobile Workers Labor Union and retired in 2018.
“The NAACP, Labor Union, and good church folks are the very people who will fight to maintain the lifestyle that we live,” Savage said. “And that is to not put a ceiling on the middle class and to not send the middle class to the bottom, and that’s who we represent.”
Savage is a veteran as he served in the Navy during the Vietnam War. Savage said he is working with organizations to provide the benefits, healthcare, and hospitality that Veterans deserve and need.
