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The Black Worker, Volume 2

The Black Worker During the Era of the National Labor Union

Edited by Philip S. Foner and Ronald L. Lewis

With a Foreword by Keona K. Ervin


Published over the course of six years, the eight volumes of The Black Worker: From Colonial Times to the Present contain a voluminous amount of archival material. Through their publication, Philip S. Foner, Ronald L. Lewis, and Robert Cvornyek birthed a new generation of Black labor history scholarship. Theirs was big, synthesis-style, social, political, intellectual, and institutional history that tried to capture as broadly as possible the patterns, trends, and themes that made race and class, and the Black labor experience, in particular, significant, shaping forces in United States history. With its compelling perspective on the salience of Black labor history along with its sheer breadth and depth, The Black Worker was and is required reading for students of labor and working-class history and African American history.


Prior to publication of The Black Worker, Black workers were largely absent from or mere footnotes in established histories; dominant narratives presented a “house of labor” occupied primarily if not exclusively by white, male, industrial workers. These accounts paid little attention to unions’ widespread practice of racial exclusion and discrimination, nor to attempts by Black workers to organize their own labor. Through its documentation of these practices, The Black Worker in no small part helped to bring about acknowledgment of these practices and the start of inclusiveness.


Inserting the voices and actions of the marginal into the canon of history was of monumental importance. By incorporating new voices into the standard chronology of American labor history, The Black Worker helped to push the field to revise its core keywords and conceptual underpinnings.

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Table of Contents

The Black Worker During the Era of the National Labor Union—Volume 2

  • Cover
  • Series Page
  • Title Page
  • Copyright
  • Foreword
  • Preface
  • Table of Contents
  • I: Black Workers form a National Organization
  • Part I: The Call and the Response
    • Call for the Colored National Labor Union
      • 1. National Labor Convention of the Colored Men of the United States
    • The Response
      • 2. Labor Meeting in Macon, Georgia
      • 3. The Negro Labor Union
      • 4. The Colored Labor Convention, II
      • 5. The Negro Convention on Georgia Outrages
      • 6. The Colored Labor Convention, III
      • 7. The Colored Labor Convention, IV
      • 8. The Colored Labor Convention, V
      • 9. The Colored Convention, VI
      • 10. Organization Among the Colored People
      • 11. "At Last the Colored Laboring Men of Georgia Are United"
      • 12. Fruits of the Labor Convention
      • 13. "No Movement is More Important"
      • 14. Letter to Georgia Newspaperman, J. E. Bryant
      • 15. Meeting of the Colored Mechanics and Laboring Man's Association of Cass County, Georgia
      • 16. Blacks Select Delegates in Rhode Island
      • 17. From the Newport Daily News
      • 18. The Virginia Convention
      • 19. Maryland Blacks Select Delegates
      • 20. The Labor Convention of Colored Men
      • 21. The South Carolina Convention
      • 22. The Labor Convention
      • 23. A Pennsylvania Meeting
      • 24. Another Pennsylvania Meeting
      • 25. Labor Reform Union – New York
      • 26. Black Workers Convene in Texas
      • 27. Colored Labor Convention – Galveston
      • 28. Organization – The Colored People
      • 29. The Colored Labor Convention
      • 30. An Appeal to the Labor Convention
  • II: Formation of the Colored National Labor Union and the Bureau of Labor
  • Part II: Formation of the Colored National Labor Union and the Bureau of Labor
    • Formation of the Colored National Labor Union and Bureau of Labor
      • 1. Proceeding of the (Colored) National Labor Union Convention
      • 2. Constitution of the Colored National Labor Union
      • 3. Address of the National Labor Union to the Colored People of the U. S.
      • 4. Prospectus of the National Labor Union and Bureau of Labor of the United States of America
      • 5. Visit of a Delegation of the Colored National Labor Convention to the President on Saturday
    • Comments on the National Colored Labor Convention
      • 6. The Colored Convention
      • 7. Observations of Samuel P. Cummings, a White Labor Unionist
      • 8. "An Important Step in the Right Direction"
      • 9. From Missouri
      • 10. An Appeal to Overcome Prejudice
  • III: The Second and Third Conventions of the Colored National Labor Union
  • Part III: The Second and Third Conventions of the Colored National Labor Union
    • The Second Colored National Labor Union Convention, January 1871
      • 1. Address to the Colored Workingmen of the United States, Trades, Labor, and Industrial Unions
      • 2. National Labor Union
      • 3. Resolutions Adopted by the Labor Convention
      • 4. National Labor Union
      • 5. The National Labor Union
      • 6. Sound Policy
      • 7. The National Labor Convention
      • 8. Editorial Correspondence
      • 9. Address
      • 10. The Other Side
      • 11. Senator Sumner to the Colored Men
      • 12. The Labor Convention
  • IV: State Black Labor Conventions
  • Part IV: State and Local Black Labor Meetings
    • State Conventions of Black Workers
      • 1. Mass–Meeting at Metropolitan Hall, Richmond
      • 2. Call for a New York State Labor Convention
      • 3. New York State Colored Labor Convention
      • 4. The Saratoga Labor Convention
      • 5. Condition of the New York Colored Men
      • 6. Racial Prejudice in New York
      • 7. New York Colored Labor Bureau
      • 8. The Long Shore Men
      • 9. Proceedings of the Alabama Labor Union Convention
      • 10. Testimony of John Henri Burch
    • References to the 1873 Alabama Negro Labor Convention
      • 11. The Labor Convention
      • 12. Plan to Organize Labor Councils
      • 13. What Does Mr. Spencer Mean?
  • V: Local Black Militancy, 1872–1877
  • Part V: Local Black Militancy, 1872–1877
    • Organized Local Activism
      • 1. Strikes in Alabama
      • 2. British Vice Consulate
      • 3. British Vice Consulate
      • 4. Department of State
      • 5. Department of State
      • 6. Department of State
      • 7. Colored Trouble at Stretcher's Neck
      • 8. Labor and Capital
      • 9. Strikes and What They Teach
      • 10. Strike at the Saw Mills
      • 11. A Strike in the Railroad Shops
      • 12. Strike in Jacksonville
      • 13. Colored Communism
      • 14. How the Radical Party in the Legislature Attempted to Effect a Virtual Confiscation of Lands
      • 15. What Does it Mean?
      • 16. They Know Not What They Do
      • 17. Trouble in Terrebonne
      • 18. War in Terrebonne
      • 19. Laborers' Strike in Louisiana
      • 20. Labor Troubles
      • 21. War in Terrebonne
      • 22. The Labor Question in Louisiana
      • 23. Trouble in the Sugar Fields
      • 24. The Terrebonne War
      • 25. Full History of the Affair
      • 26. The Terrebonne Prisoners
      • 27. The Longshoremen's Protective Union Association
      • 28. Strike of Rice Harvesters
      • 29. Robert Small on the Combahee Strike
      • 30. Labor Movement
      • 31. Strike in St. Louis
      • 32. The Galveston S–rike of 1877
      • 33. Black Washerwomen Strike in Galveston, Texas
      • 34. Report of Meeting of Amalgamated Trade Unions, New York City, July 26, 1877
      • 35. Meeting of Black Workers in Virginia
      • 36. Colored Waiters' Protective Union
      • 37. Oyster Schuckers Strike
      • 38. Formation of the Laboring Man's Association of Burke County, Georgia
    • The New National Era and the Labor Question, 1870–1874
      • 39. Horace H. Day to the Editor of the New National Era
      • 40. The Workingman's Party
      • 41. The True Labor Reform
      • 42. The Labor Question
      • 43. "To Let Live"
      • 44. Co–operative Societies
      • 45. A One–Sided View
      • 46. Letters to the People – No. 1
      • 47. The Folly, Tyranny, and Wickedness of Labor Unions
      • 48. From Alabama
      • 49. Labor Union
  • VI: The Ku Klux Klan and Black Labor
  • Part VI: The Ku Klux Klan and Black Labor
    • The Ku Klux Klan and Black Labor
      • 1. Testimony Taken by the Joint Select Committee to Inquire into the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States, Spartanburgh, S. C.
      • 2. Testimony Taken by the Joint Select Committee to Inquire into the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States, Columbia, S.C.
      • 3. Testimony Taken by the Joint Select Committee to Inquire into the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States, Yorkville, S.C.
  • VII: Black Socialism and Greenbackism
  • Part VII: Black Socialism and Greenbackism
    • Peter H. Clark and Socialism
      • 1. Clark Addresses the Workingmen's Party of the United States
      • 2. The Workingmen's Party Mass Meeting in Robinson's Opera House Last Night
      • 3. Socialism: The Remedy for the Evils of Society
      • 4. An Editorial Reply
      • 5. A Plea for the Strikers
    • The Greenback–Labor Party
      • The "Alabama Letters" to the Editors of the National Labor Tribune
      • 6. From Warren Kelley, June 25, 1878
      • 7. Note on W. J. Thomas, July, 1878
      • 8. From Warren Kelley, July, 1878
      • 9. From Warren Kelley, July 29, 1878
      • 10. From Warren Kelley, July 29, 1878
      • 11. From Warren Kelley, July 30, 1878
      • 12. From Warren Kelley, August 17, 1878
      • 13. From "Dawson," December 28, 1878
      • 14. From W. J. Thomas, January 20, 1879
      • 15. Note from a member , March 1, 1879
      • 16. From "Dawson," March 28, 1879
      • 17. From "A Close Looker," March 28, 1879
      • 18. From "Dawson," April 16, 1879
      • 19. From "Reno," May 13, 1879
      • 20. From W. J. Thomas, May 24, 1879
      • 21. From Warren Kelley, May 24, 1879
      • 22. From "Reno," June 30, 1879
      • 23. From "A Close Looker," July 6, 1879
      • 24. From "Dawson," July 25, 1879
      • 25. From "Dawson," August 5, 1879
      • 26. From D. J., August, 1879
      • 27. From "A Close Looker," August 27, 1879
      • 28. From "Olympic," September 15, 1879
      • 29. From "Olympic," October 4, 1879
      • 30. From "New Deal," October 20, 1879
      • 31. From Michael F. Moran, November 17, 1879
      • 32. From Henry Ovenlid, December 9, 1879
      • 33. A Black Minister Explains his Shift from the Republican to the Greenback–Labor Party
      • 34. The People's League
      • 35. Arkansas Greenbackers
  • VIII: Black and White Labor Relations, 1870–1878
  • Part VIII: Black and White Labor Relations, 1870–1878
    • Race Relations between Black and White Workers
      • 1. A Question of Color
      • 2. "A Fellowship That Shall Know No Caste"
      • 3. "Loyalty" and "The Nigger"
      • 4. Appeal to Colored Labor Unions
      • 5. The Fifteenth Amendment
      • 6. "Damned Niggerism"
      • 7. Convention of the Bricklayers' National Union, January 9, 1871
      • 8. Editorial Against the Bricklayers' Stand on the Race Question
      • 9. Laborers' Strike Settled
      • 10. Resolutions of the National Labor Union Convention, 1871
      • 11. The Eight–Hour Demonstration in New York
      • 12. Negro Hate Triumphant
      • 13. More Convict Labor Wanted
      • 14. Procession in Nashville
      • 15. Women of Color
      • 16. Memorial Parade in New York
      • 17. The Apprentice Question
      • 18. Interrogatory
      • 19. International Workingmen's Meeting, I
      • 20. International Workingmen's Meeting, II
      • 21. The Internationals – John McMakin's Address
      • 22. To the International Society
      • 23. The Colored National Labor Union and the Labor Reform Party
      • 24. Closed Against Us
      • 25. Report of Commencement Exercises at Philadelphia Institute of Colored Youth
      • 26. Delegates to Founding Convention of the Industrial Congress
      • 27. A Mechanic's Ideas
      • 28. Colored Labor
      • 29. Negroes Working the Coal Mines
      • 30. Negro Competition
      • 31. Coal Miners' Strike
      • 32. From Kentucky
      • 33. "Turned Out Upon the Charity of the World"
      • 34. Our Colored Brothers in the South
      • 35. Capitalistic Press
      • 36. Convict Labor in Georgia
      • 37. Adolph Douai's Suggestion to the International Labor Union
      • 38. "Ignorant, Docile and Peaceable"
      • 39. Labor in the South
      • 40. House Committee Testimony
    • The Labor League
      • 41. Address of the Central Council of the Labor League of the United States to His Excellency Rutherford B. Hayes, President of the United States
  • IX: The Black Exodus
  • Part IX: The Black Exodus
    • The Exodus of Black Labor from the South
      • 1. The Negro Emigration Movement
      • 2. Contract for Agricultural Laborers, Alabama, 1874
      • 3. Resolution Adopted by Negro Convention – Montgomery, Alabama, December 1, 1874
      • 4. Deluded Negroes
      • 5. The Labor Question in the South
      • 6. "150,000 Exiles Enrolled For Liberia"
      • 7. Richard H. Cain to Hon. Wm. Coppinger
      • 8. The Labor Question South
      • 9. The Land That Gives Birth to Freedom
      • 10. W. P. B. Pinchback Describes the Exodus
      • 11. An Appeal for Aid
      • 12. Leaving Misery Behind
      • 13. Why Blacks are Emigrating
      • 14. Urging the Negroes to Move
      • 15. The Southern Fugitives
      • 16. The Western Exodus
      • 17. The Southern Refugees
      • 18. Freedom in Kansas
      • 19. Colored Labor in the South
      • 20. Report of the Committee on Address to the National Conference of Colored Men of the United States, May, 1879
      • 21. Negro Colonization
      • 22. The Negro's New Bondage
      • 23. Southern Labor Troubles
      • 24. An Englishman's Perceptions of Blacks in Kansas City
      • 25. Colored Immigrants in Kansas
      • 26. Blacks in the West
      • 27. The Appeal from Kansas
      • 28. The Colored Refugees
      • 29. The Tide of Colored Emigration
      • 30. The Exodus to Liberia
      • 31. Wrongs of the Colored Race
      • 32. The Arkansas Refugees, I
      • 33. The Arkansas Refugees, II
      • 34. The Arkansas Refugees, III
      • 35. The Exodus Question
      • 36. Testimony of Henry Adams Before the Select Committee of the United States Senate.
      • 37. Nicodemus
      • 38. "The Advance Guard of the Exodus"
      • 39. Labor in the Far South
      • 40. Interview with Sojourner Truth
  • Notes
  • Index

Metadata

  • isbn
    9781439917688
  • publisher
    Temple University Press
  • publisher place
    Philadelphia, PA
  • restrictions
    CC-BY-NC-ND
  • rights
    Copyright © 1978 by Temple University—Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education

    First published 1978. Reissued 2019.

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