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The Black Worker, Volume 7

The Black Worker from the Founding of the CIO to the AFL-CIO Merger, 1936-1955

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 From the Founding of the CIO to the AFL Merger, 1936–1955—Volume VII

  • Cover
  • Series Page
  • Title Page
  • Copyright
  • Foreword
  • Table of Contents
  • Preface
  • Part I: The Congress of Industrial Organization and the Black Worker, 1935–1940
    • Introduction
      • The Congress of Industrial Organizations and Black Workers
        • 1. Unity
        • 2. Alabama Mine Strike Firm
        • 3. Black Worker Lauds Thomas as Champion of Negro Cause
        • 4. Labor League
        • 5. Colored Labor
        • 6. C.I.O. Auto Union Will Not Tolerate Discrimination
        • 7. Interview With Henry Johnson, 1937
        • 8. Negro, White Workers Join in Va. Strike
        • 9. Loose Talk About Labor
        • 10. C.I.O. Drives Bring Hopeful Dawn for Negro Labor
        • 11. Union Agreement Results in Higher Wages
        • 12. A Year of the C.I.O.
        • 13. Selling Out the Workers
        • 14. Committee Attacks IRT Negro Discrimination
        • 15. We Win the Right to Fight for Jobs
        • 16. Negroes Urged for Wage-Hour Boards
        • 17. The CIO Convention and the Negro People
        • 18. Union Helped Her
        • 19. Walter Hardin--Leader in Negroes' Fight for Justice
        • 20. John L. Lewis on the Poll Tax
        • 21. Colored People to Hear President Lewis
        • 22. Lewis Tells Negro Group: U.S. Must Avoid War Solve Own Problems
        • 23. The Labor Reader: The Negro and the CIO
        • 24. Negroes Should Join the CIO, Says Paul Robeson
        • 25. The CIO and the Negro Worker
      • Steel Workers' Organizing Committee
        • 26. Negroes Back CIO Steel Drive
        • 27. Negro Leaders to Issue Call to 100,000 in Industry
        • 28. Negro and White Stick--Steel Lockout Fails
        • 29. Negro Group in Steel Drive to Hold Parley
        • 30. Negro America Acts to Build Steel Union, by Adam Lapin
        • 31. Negroes Pledge Aid to Steel Drive
        • 32. Chance for Negro Worker
        • 33. Resolutions Passed by the Steel Workers Organizing Committee Convention, 1937
        • 34. Blood for the Cause
        • 35. Schuyler Visits Steel Centers in Ohio and Pennsylvania
        • 36. Negro Workers Lead in Great Lakes Steel Drive
        • 37. Virginia and Maryland Negroes Flock to Unions
        • 38. Schuyler Finds Philadelphia Negroes Are Rallying to "New Deal" Call
        • 39. Harlem Boasts 42,000 Negro Labor Unionists
        • 40. Detroit Awaiting Ford Crisis
        • 41. Union Drive Slows in Border Cities: Leaders Hostile
        • 42. Industrial South Shaky . . . Many Negro Officers in Dixie Steel Unions
        • 43. The Negro in "Little Steel,"
        • 44. Negro Women in Steel
        • 45. Noel R. Beddow to Charles E. Fell, November 29, 1938
        • 46. Resolutions Passed by the Steel Workers Organizing Committee Convention, 1940
        • 47. Steel Drive Moves Colored People into Action!
        • 48. The Story of Ben Careathers
      • Tobacco Workers
        • 49. Negro-White Pickets March in Richmond
        • 50. Victory of Negro Tobacco Workers Jolts Bourbonism
        • 51. A New Deal for Tobacco Workers
        • 52. The Making of Mama Harris
        • 53. Sound Advice From An Old Colored Brother on Unions
      • Black Seamen
        • 54. Negro, White Stand Solid in Dock Strike
        • 55. Labor Gains on Coast
        • 56. Should the "Forgotten Men of the Sea" Stay Ashore?
        • 57. Negro and White Unity Won Boston Ship Strike
        • 58. Harlem Rally to Support Ship Strike
        • 59. Harlem Group Rally to Aid Ship Strikes
        • 60. Negro's Stake in Sea Strike Parley's Topic
        • 61. Protecting the Negro Seaman
        • 62. Paul Robeson Speech at the National Maritime Union Convention
      • The National Negro Congress
        • 63. Martel Will Address National Negro Congress
        • 64. Randolph Says Hope of Negro People Lies in Unity With Labor
        • 65. Negro Congress Must Strengthen Its Trade Union Base
        • 66. Union Drive to Organize Negro Workers is Asked
        • 67. The National Negro Congress: An Interpretation
        • 68. CIO Council Heads Named in Philadelphia
        • 69. Negro Congress Gets Support From CIO
        • 70. Negro Congress Calls for United Labor Movement in Closing Season
        • 71. Negro Congress Will Give Weight to Union Drives, Randolph Says
        • 72. Committee For Industrial Organization
        • 73. Harlem Unions Back National Negro Congress
        • 74. Roosevelt Greets Negro Congress
        • 75. Kennedy Speaker at the Negro Congress
        • 76. Brophy Raps Lynching at Negro Parley
        • 77. President Lewis Discusses Major U.S. Issues at National Negro Congress
        • 78. Lewis Invites National Negro Congress to Join Labor League
        • 79. The National Negro Congress--Its Future
  • Part II: The Southern Tenant Farmers' Union
    • Introduction
      • Stfu and Black Sharecroppers
        • 1. Southern Share-cropper
        • 2. Formation of the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union
        • 3. Night Riders With Guns and Pistols
        • 4. Frank Weems Case
        • 5. Planters Railroad Union Men to Prison, February 21, 1936
        • 6. H. L. Mitchell to E. B. McKinney, July 31, 1936
        • 7. J. E. Clayton to H. L. Mitchell, December 28, 1937
        • 8. J. R. Butler to STFU Executive Council, July 18, 1938
        • 9. J. R. Butler to Claude Williams, August 22, 1938
        • 10. Claude Williams' Response to J. R. Butler, August 25, 1938
        • 11. J. R. Butler to E. B. McKinney, August 27, 1938
        • 12. E. B. McKinney to J. R. Butler, August 31, 1938
        • 13. E. B. McKinney's Pledge of Allegiance, December 5, 1938
        • 14. J. E. Clayton to H. L. Mitchell, May 6, 1939
        • 15. J. E. Clayton to J. R. Butler, June 9, 1939
        • 16. George Mayberry to H. L. Mitchell, November 23, 1939
        • 17. Affidavit of George Mayberry, November 29, 1939
        • 18. Letters From a Sharecropper
        • 19. Farmer's Memory Sings Raggedy Tune
        • 20. King Cotton
        • 21. Strike in Arkansas
      • The Missouri Roadside Demonstration of 1939
        • 22. Ten Million Sharecroppers
        • 23. Telegram From H. L. Mitchell to Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt, January 18, 1939
        • 24. Herbert Little to Aubrey Williams, January 15, 1939
        • 25. Sample Case Histories Compiled by Herbert Little From Roadside Demonstrators in January 1939
        • 26. Memorandum From Herbert Little to Aubrey Williams, January 16, 1939
        • 27. Report of Herbert Little, January 16, 1939
        • 28. Memorandum From Aubrey Williams to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, January 16, 1939
        • 29. Aubrey Williams to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, January 19, 1939
  • Part III: The Black Worker During World War II
    • Introduction
      • Blacks and the War Economy
        • 1. Industrial Democracy
        • 2. A Word from OPM
        • 3. Negro Participation in Defense Work
        • 4. Employers, Unions and Negro Workers
        • 5. Colored Labor Faces a Bottleneck
        • 6. La. Labor Union Supports Demands of Negro Members
        • 7. U.S. Navy Yards Increase Race Workers a Hundred-Fold
        • 8. Crew Refuses to Sail Ship Unless Colored Men Hired
        • 9. The White House
        • 10. Philadelphia's Employers, Unions and Negro Workers
        • 11. Negro Labor in Miami
        • 12. Employment Survey Shows Discriminatory Practices Widespread
        • 13. Governor Opposes Equality in Plant
        • 14. Negroes Offer Plan to Nelson for Training 50,000 Workers
        • 15. Labor Leader Warns of Worker Shortage in Barring Negroes
        • 16. Labor at the Crossroads
        • 17. Resolution to Hire Negro Beer Driver-Helpers Killed
        • 18. Progress Report, War Manpower Commission, March, 1943
        • 19. Occupational Status of Negro Railroad Employees
        • 20. Beg Women to Take War Jobs Yet Deny Them to Negroes
        • 21. Developments in the Employment of Negroes in War Industries
        • 22. White and Negro Americans Must Unite for Victory
        • 23. Negro Women War Workers
        • 24. Women in War Industries Break All Precedent in Learning Intricate Jobs
        • 25. Monty Ward Bias Bared
      • The March on Washington Movement
        • 26. Why Should We March?
        • 27. Memo to all NAACP Branches, May 12, 1941
        • 28. Call to the March, July 1, 1941
        • 29. War Demands New Methods for Solution of the Negro Question
        • 30. National March on Washington Movement Policies and Directives
        • 31. March on Washington Movement Press Release, August 17, 1942
        • 32. St. Louis Negroes!
        • 33. 400 Negroes in Protest Parade
        • 34. Speech Delivered by Dr. Lawrence M. Ervin, June 30, 1943
        • 35. 205 Jam Phone Co. At Once Paying Bills As Protest to Job Denials
      • Fair Employment Practices Committee
        • 36. The Wartime Utilization of Minority Workers
        • 37. F.E.P.C. Asks Roosevelt to Enforce Order
        • 38. Ten Firms Ordered to Stop Race Bias or Lose Contracts
        • 39. The FEPC: A Partial Victory
        • 40. FEPC Cracks Down on Dixie Shipyard
        • 41. Post Mortem on FEPC
        • 42. Members Advised Not to Talk Until After Conference
        • 43. What About the FEPC?
        • 44. Haas Compromise Bitterly Scored
        • 45. The New FEPC
        • 46. Railroads Plead Guilty
        • 47. Civil Rights
        • 48. Ditching the Permanent FEPC
        • 49. Our Stake in a Permanent FEPC
        • 50. FEPC Bill Killed
      • The FEPC and Discrimination at West Coast Shipyards
        • 51. Julia and Daisy Dollarhyde to Franklin Roosevelt, January 6, 1943
        • 52. Herman Patten to Paul McNutt, February 11, 1943
        • 53. Rita Queirolo to Paul McNutt, January 5, 1942
        • 54. Rita Queirolo to Paul McNutt, November 30, 1942
        • 55. Rita Queirolo to George M. Johnson, December 28, 1942
        • 56. FEPC News Release, December 14, 1943
        • 57. Hearings Before the President's Committee on Fair Employment Practice--Kaiser Company and Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation
        • 58. Boilermakers' Union Claims Communists Influenced FEPC
        • 59. Negro Status in the Boilermakers Union
      • The Philadelphia "Hate Strike," 1944
        • 60 Wasted Manpower, Part I
        • 61. Un-American and Intolerable
        • 62. Transit Strike Long Threatened
        • 63. Ten Are Injured in Street Fights
        • 64. Attempt to Operate El and Subway Fails
        • 65. End This Outrageous Strike!
        • 66. Wasted Manpower, Part II
        • 67. Up to the Army: End This Strike!
        • 68. Collusion Charge Sent to Roosevelt
        • 69. Grave Strike Issues Remain
        • 70. Philadelphia: Post-War Preview
        • 71. The Philadelphia Strike
        • 72. Wasted Manpower, Part III
        • 73. CIO Leads Fight for Negroes in Transit
        • 74. Where the Blame Rests
        • 75. Summary of Evidence
        • 76. Carolyn Davenport Moore to U.S. Department of Justice, March 10, 1944
        • 77. Rena Corman to Franklin Roosevelt, December 16, 1943
      • The CIO and the Black Worker
        • 78. The Red Caps' Struggle for a Livelihood
        • 79. Redcaps Accept CIO Bid to Affiliate as New International
        • 80. Detroit NAACP Calls on Negroes Not to Act as Strikebreakers for Ford
        • 81. NAACP Press Release, April 9, 1941
        • 82. The Ford Contract: An Opportunity
        • 83. Negroes Thank CIO for Aid in Detroit Housing Dispute
        • 84. First Convention of the United Steelworkers of America, 1942
        • 85. Constitution of the United Steelworkers of America, 1942
        • 86. CIO's Program for Inter-Racial Harmony in St. Louis
        • 87. Discrimination
        • 88. Negro Group to Meet FDR on Rights
        • 89. CIO Seeks War Work for Firm as 450 Negroes Face Job Loss
        • 90. UAW-CIO Convention Adopts Courier "Double V" Program
        • 91. Murray Orders Study of Negro Job Equality
        • 92. CIO to Fight Bias Against Negroes
        • 93. Negroes Favor the CIO
        • 94. Old Labor Policy is Blasted
        • 95. CIO Confab Maps All-Out Fight on Racial Barriers
        • 96. Push Fight on Bias--CIO
        • 97. Labor Unionist Disappointed in Lack of Interest
        • 98. New Hate Strikes Flare Up
        • 99. Oscar Noble to Victor Reuther, January 5, 1943
        • 100. To All Negro Ford Workers
        • 101. To All Negro Ford Workers
        • 102. To All Negro Ford Workers
        • 103. Board Minutes of United Automobile Workers, September 16, 1941
        • 104. The Detroit Race Riot of 1943
        • 105. UAW-CIO Press Release, July 27, 1943
        • 106. Race Hatred is Sabotage
        • 107. CIO Condemns Race Bias, Urges Political Action to Help Win War
        • 108. Citizen CIO
        • 109. The CIO and the Negro American
        • 110. CIO Fights Drive Against Negro War Workers
        • 111. Second Convention of the United Steelworkers of America, 1944
        • 112. CIO Spurs Negroes in Winston-Salem
        • 113. Pitfalls That Beset Negro Trade-Unionists
        • 114. Negroes Rate CIO Fairer, Poll Shows
  • Part IV: The American Federation of Labor and the Black Worker, 1936–1945
    • Introduction
      • The AFL and Racial Discrimination
        • 1. Old Guard vs. A.F. of L.
        • 2. Organized Labor's Divided Front
        • 3. Negro Members Drive is Painters Council Plan
        • 4. Strike Mediator Will Arrive Here
        • 5. Picket Line Protests Use of White Workers in Colored Neighborhood
        • 6. Whites Strike Over Hiring of Race Employees
        • 7. Editorial of the Month: Labor Points the Way
        • 8. Negro Dockers Strike in Georgia For Pay Increase
        • 9. Longshoremen in New Orleans: The Fight Against "Nigger Ships,"
        • 10. John Fitzpatrick to Chicago Church Federation, May 26, 1937
        • 11. Warren Clark and Shailer Matthews to Chicago Federation of Labor, May 21, 1937
        • 12. Packers Join Auto Hands in Sit-Down Strike
        • 13. Packing Company Employers Disarmed
        • 14. Jim Crowism in A.F. of L. Socred at Harlem Rally
        • 15. Result of Green Probe is Awaited
        • 16. Lily White Unions Steal Negro Jobs
        • 17. The A.F. of L. Slams the Door Again
        • 18. Final Forum Gathering Conducted
        • 19. Negroes Map National Campaign to Break Color Bar in Railroad Unions
        • 20. Negro Leaders Ask End of Rail Union Discrimination
        • 21. Fight on Discrimination Shift to A.F. of L. Union
        • 22. Brotherhood Wins Over Half Million Dollar Increase for Pullman Porters
        • 23. AFL Ignores Randolph
        • 24. AFL Union Head Favors Conductors
        • 25. "We Must Use All L bor," AFL Told
        • 26. Protest Against AFL Jim Crow Local No. 92
        • 27. Green Asks Plan to End AFL Bias
        • 28. NLRB Examiner Cracks Down on AFL Jim Crow
        • 29. Larus Case Spotlights AFL's Policy on Negroes
        • 30. The AFL Convention
      • Selected AFL Convention Resolutions on Black Labor
        • 31. 1936 Convention
        • 32. 1938 Convention
        • 33. 1941 Convention
        • 34. 1942 Convention
        • 35. 1943 Convention
  • Part V: The Post War Decade, 1945–1955
    • Introduction
      • 1. Employment and Income of Negro Workers: 1940–52
        • 2. Postwar Job Rights of Negro Workers
        • 3. Postwar Jobs for Negro Workers
        • 4. Postwar Jobs for Negro Workers
        • 5. The Government's Role in Jobs for Negro Workers
        • 6. Labor and Fair Employment
        • 7. AFL Convention, 1946
        • 8. Our Stake in the Labor Fight
        • 9. World Trade Union Parley and Negro Labor
        • 10. Warn Negroes of Matt Smith
        • 11. Foul Employment Practice on the Rails
        • 12. AFL Convention, 1949
        • 13. Blacks in the Labor Unions: New Orleans, 1950
        • 14. CIO Seeks End of Segregation in Oklahoma University
        • 15. Negro Women Workers
        • 16. Court Outlaws Railroad-Union Jim Crow Deal
        • 17. Negro Workers Gain New Jobs When Union Fights Jim Crow
        • 18. Unity Forged in Local 600
        • 19. U.S. Is the Biggest Jim Crow Boss
        • 20. All-White Auto Union Jury Ousts 13 Detroit Leaders
        • 21. Ferdinand Smith Leaves
        • 22. The Negro Labor Committee
        • 23. Speech of Frank Crosswaith, June 28, 1952
        • 24. Colored Union Wins Costly Suit
        • 25. Supreme Court Decisions Protect Negro Railroad Workers
        • 26. N.C. Furniture Workers Blaze Union Trail
        • 27. Brutal Captains, Federal Screening Take Negroes' Lives and Jobs at Sea
        • 28. A Leader of the Furriers Union
        • 29. International Harvester Strikes Fight Wage Cut
        • 30. Labor Defends Life of Negro Unionist in Harvester Strike
        • 31. Harvester Strikers Battle Company Attack
        • 32. Racial Dispute Irks Reuther
        • 33. Union Goal: End Jim Crow!
        • 34. CIO Ban On Segregation Is Reaffirmed
        • 35. Negro Gain Shown in South's Plants
        • 36. Negro Employment In the Birmingham Area (1955)
      • The National Negro Labor Council
        • 37. For These Things We Fight!
        • 38. New Council Maps Negro Job Battle
        • 39. Labor Will Lead Our People to First Class Citizenship
        • 40. Labor Council Meets, Charts Fighting Path
        • 41. These Were the People On the Freedom Train
        • 42. "Big Train Speaks of the New Negro"
        • 43. Southern Worker Calls for Labor Council Drive
        • 44. Hearings Before the Committee on Un-American Activities
        • 45. Labor Unit Set Up for Negro Rights
        • 46. Hoods Statement on "600" Victory
        • 47. Freedom Salutes: William A. Reed of Detroit
        • 48. Harold Ward Free--Labor Council Sparked Campaign
        • 49. Key Delegates Discuss Top Convention Issues
        • 50. Militant Veterans of "600" Appeal International Rule
        • 51. Negro Leadership--A Key Issue
        • 52. Labor Lowers Boom on Jim Crow
        • 53. NAACP Demands Curb on Red Aims
        • 54. Negro Labor Group Called Red Front
      • Paul Robeson and the Black Worker
        • 55. Speech at International Fur and Leather Workers Union Convention
        • 56. Robeson Dares Truman to Enforce FEPC
        • 57. Remarks At Longshore, Shipclerks, Walking Bosses and Gatemen and Watchmen's Caucus
        • 58. Forge Negro-Labor Unity for Peace and Jobs
        • 59. National Union of Marine Cooks and Stewards Convention
        • 60. Ford Local 600 Picnic
        • 61. Toward A Democratic Earth We Helped to Build
        • 62. The Negro Artist Looks Ahead
        • 63. The Battleground Is Here
        • 64. The UAW Should Set the Pace
        • 65. Fight We Must
      • The AFL-CIO Merger Proposal
        • 66. Labor Leaders Express Views on the Proposed Merger
        • 67. Meany Vows Fight on Bias When Labor's Ranks Unite
  • Notes and Index
  • Notes
  • Index

Metadata

  • isbn
    9781439917787
  • publisher
    Temple University Press
  • publisher place
    Philadelphia, PA
  • restrictions
    CC-BY-NC-ND
  • rights
    Copyright © 1983 by Temple University—Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education

    First published 1983. Reissued 2019.

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