Founded in the early 1960s, the organization fought for racial equality within the Bethlehem Steel Corporation.
The formation of the organization was encouraged by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the CORE-affiliated Maryland Freedom Union (MFU).
Johnson and the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund filed complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that Bethlehem Steel's seniority practices perpetuated discrimination against Black workers.
Freedom marches were held at Sparrows Point, and the national Bethlehem Steel headquarters in Pennsylvania, and in front of the Department of Labor in Washington, D.C.
These protests were supported by CORE as well as U-JOIN, an offshoot of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).