TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I: ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF BLACK WORKERS AT THE TURN OF THE 20TH CENTURY

Introduction

THE SOUTH

1. Labor Questions in the South

2. After All – The Causes

3. Negro Labor in Factories, by Jerome Dowd

4. A Negro Woman Speaks, 1902

5. Negroes of Farmville, Va., by W. E. B. Du Bois

6. The City Negro: Industrial Status, by Kelley Miller

7. Economic Conditions in Nashville, 1904

8. White Labor Only

THE NORTH

9. Training of the Negro Laborer in the North, by Hugh M. Browne

10. Menial Jobs Lost, We Go Higher

11. Black Occupations in Boston, Mass., 1905

12. The Negro in New York

13. The Industrial Condition of the Negro in New York City, by William L. Bulkley

14. The Negro’s Quest for Work

BLACK ARTISANS AND MECHANICS

15. Handicaps of Negro Mechanics, by Harry E. Thomas

16. Negro Mechanics

17. The Negro as a Skilled Workman

18. The American Negro Artisan

19. Skilled Labor in Memphis, Tenn., 1908

20. The Economic Condition of Negroes in the North; The Skilled Mechanic in the North, by R. R. Wright, Jr.

21. The Colored Woman as an Economic Factor, by Addie W. Hunton

22. The Negro Artisan, by W. E. B. Du Bois

PART II: ORGANIZED LABOR AND THE BLACK WORKER BEFORE WORLD WAR I

Introduction

RACE RELATIONS IN THE LABOR MOVEMENT

1. Race Feeling Causes a Strike

2. Status of the Negro in Trades Union Movement

3. Albany, New York

4. Lessons of the Strike

5. Labor Unions and the Negro

6. Duty and Interest of Organized Labor

7. Organization and Leadership

8. The Great Strike

9. The Negro as a Blessing

10. The South: a Country Without Strikes

11. Government’s Union Men

12. The 1904 Meat Packing Strike in Chicago, by John R. Commons

13. Woman’s Local in the Stockyards

14. Unity

15. View of a Black Union Official

16. The Inner Meaning of Negro Disfranchisement

17. Expert Negroes to Check Unions

18. Niagra Movement Address

19. Negroes and the Ladies Waist-Makers Union

20. Disfranchising Workingmen

21. “Take Up the Black Man’s Burden”

22. The Negro and the Labor Unions, by Booker T. Washington

23. Negro Press and Unionism

THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR AND THE BLACK WORKER

24. James E. Porter to Samuel Gompers, April 20, 1900

25. James Leonard to Samuel Gompers, May 18, 1900

26. James E. Porter to Samuel Gompers, May 19, 1900

27. James E. Porter to Samuel Gompers, June 15, 1900

28. James Leonard to Samuel Gompers, June 29, 1900

29. H. H. Spring to Frank Morrison, December 16, 1900

30. C. H. Blasingame to Samuel Gompers, January 1, 1901

31. John T. Wilson to Frank Morrison, November 2, 1903

32. J. C. Skemp to Frank Morrison, July 9, 1904

33. Samuel Gompers to the Brown & Williamson Company, August 18, 1904

34. Editorial

35. Excerpt from a Speech by Samuel Gompers in St. Paul, Minnesota

36. Excerpts from Convention Proceedings of the Texas State Federation of Labor

NEW ORLEANS LEVEE STRIKE 1907

37. To Rise Together, by Oscar Ameringer

38. General Strike of All Levee Unions is Now On

39. Screwmen Agree on 180 Bales

40. Committee to Investigate Port Charges Not Chosen

41. Levee Labor Peace is Again Threatened

42. Port Inquiry Goes Deeper Into Levee Labor Troubles

43. Placing the Blame for Labor Troubles on the Levee

1908 ALABAMA COAL STRIKE

44. Strike Situation is Unchanged

45. A Card

46. Sheriff Higdon Against Them

47. Troops Out For Strikers

48. With 1000 Volleys Rang Mountain Around Jefferson

49. Deputies Wounded by Leaden Missiles

50. Masked Men Beat Yolande Pumper to Insensibility

51. More Disturbances in Mining District Cause Some Alarm

52. Negroes Arrested on Grave Charges

53. More Lawlessness Results in Death in Mining Fields

54. Miners Afraid to Return to Work at Short Creek

55. Arrest in Ensley for Dynamiting

56. More Negroes are Held on Suspicion

57. Miners’ Union Invades Walker With the Fight

58. Dynamite Under Brighton House

59. Governor Comer Comments on Strike Situation

60. Negroes are Acquitted

61. Two Deputies in Brighton are Held for Lynching Negro

62. Striking Miners Rally Near Mines at Dora

63. New Troops Take Up Duty in the Strike District

64. Three are Dead and Eleven Wounded

65. Arrest 30 Miners for Train Murders

66. Lawless Acts Again Reported

67. Governor Confers With Col. Hubbard

68. Negro Masons Advised to Stay Out of Unions

69. Camp of the Blocton Soldiers Inspected

70. Shatter Homes and Spread Terror

71. Why Should Leaders Be Permitted to Remain?

72. Social Equality Talk Evil Feature of Strike

73. Non-Union Miner Shot from Ambush Near Pratt City

74. Arrests Made in Strike District

75. Two Speakers Put Under Arrest

76. The Social Equality Horror

77. Everybody Knows Who is to Blame For Conditions

78. Spirit of Deviltry Causes Disorder and Crime

79. Put Down All Attempts to Overturn Social Status

80. Race Question Important Issue In Miners’ Strike

81. Race Question Bothering the Strike Leaders

82. “Social Equality” Side of the Miners’ Strike

83. Strike Called Off; Order Goes Forth

84. Strike Called Off by Official Order

GEORGIA RAILROAD STRIKE, 1909

85. Negroes Cause Strike

86. Union Wars on Negroes

87. Violence Continues on Georgia Railroad

88. Georgia Road Not Trying to Establish Negro Supremacy

89. Mob Negro Firemen on Georgia Railroad

90. Anti-Negro Strike Ties Up Railroad

91. Neill Offers Mediation

92. The Strike in Georgia

93. Race Prejudice Mixed With Economics

94. May Arbitrate Georgia Strike

95. Georgia Firemen’s Strike

96. Georgia Strike at a Deadlock

97. To Run Mail Trains with Negro Firemen

98. Anxiety in Washington

99. Mob Attacks Train Causes New Tie-up

100. Federal Officials End Georgia Strike

101. Conference to Aid Negroes

102. Ousting of Negroes is Still Demanded

103. The Georgia Strike

104. Woman Halts a Mob

105. Georgia Railroad Strike

106. Race Strike on Georgia Railroads

107. The Georgia Compromise

108. What Shall the Negro Do?

109. Negro Firemen Upheld

110. Georgia Firemen Satisfied

111. Hope For the Negro

112. Want No Negro Firemen

113. The Georgia Strike

114. Black Spectre in Georgia

115. Georgia Railroad Strike

PART III: THE GREAT MIGRATION

Introduction

EXODUS TO THE NORTH

1. Migration of Negroes to the North, by R. R. Wright, Jr.

2. Negro Exodus From the South, by W. T. B. Williams

3. Labor

4. The Negro Moving North

5. Before Leaving the South

6. To North: Bad Treatment, Low Pay

7. Why the Negro Leaves the South

8. “Freedom’s Ticket”

9. The Black Migrant: Housing and Employment

LETTERS OF NEGRO MIGRANTS, 1916–1918

10. Letters Asking for Information About the North

11. Letters About Groups for the North

12. Letters About Labor Agents

13. Letters About the Great Northern Drive of 1917

14. Letters Emphasizing Race Welfare

PART IV: THE MIGRATION AND NORTHERN RACE RIOTS

Introduction

RACE RIOT IN EAST ST. LOUIS, 1917

1. East St. Louis Riots: Report of the Special Committee

2. The Congressional Investigation of East St. Louis, by Lindsey Cooper

3. What Some Americans Think of East St. Louis

4. The East St. Louis Pogrom, by Oscar Leonard

5. A Negro on East St. Louis

6. East St. Louis—Why?

7. East St. Louis Race Riots

8. Our Tyranny Over the Negro

9. Union Labor Denies Blame for Race Riots

10. The Massacre of East St. Louis

11. The East St. Louis Riots

THE CHICAGO RACE RIOT, 1919

12. The Chicago Riot

13. Chicago Race Riots

14. A Report on the Chicago Riot by an Eye-Witness

15. Chicago and its Eight Reasons, by Walter White

16. Exploitation of Negroes by Packers Caused Riots

17. On the Firing-Line During the Chicago Race-Riots

18. What the South Thinks of Northern Race-Riots

19. Chicago in the Nation’s Race Strife, by Graham Taylor

20. Why the Negro Appeals to Violence

21. The Lull After the Storm

PART V: GEORGE E. HAYNES AND THE DIVISION OF NEGRO ECONOMICS

Introduction

NEW OPPORTUNITIES RAISE NEW QUESTIONS

1. The Negro at Work During the War and During Reconstruction, by George E. Haynes

2. An Appeal to Black Folk From the Secretary of Labor

3. The Opportunity of Negro Labor, by George E. Haynes

PART VI: ORGANIZED LABOR AND THE BLACK WORKER DURING WORLD WAR I AND READJUSTMENT

Introduction

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR CONVENTIONS AND THE BLACK WORKER

1. American Federation of Labor Convention, 1917

2. American Federation of Labor Convention, 1918

3. American Federation of Labor Convention, 1919

RACE RELATIONS AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT

4. The Negro Migration and the Labor Movement

5. Our Women Wage-Earners

6. Factory Girls Resent Abuse

7. The Trainmen’s Strike

8. Organize the Negro

9. Organized Labor Not Friendly?

10. Negro Workers are Organizing

11. Big Labor Day Celebration

12. Mills Open to Colored Labor

13. Colored Men Denied Increase

14. The Negro and the War

15. Open All Labor Unions to Colored

16. The Case of the Women Strikers

17. Skeptical of Labor Unions

18. The Changing Status of Negro Labor

19. The Black Man and the Unions

20. The Labor Union

21. Is Organized Labor Patriotic?

22. Negro Workers Get Impetus to Organize in Labor Unions

23. Reasons Why White and Black Workers Should Combine in Labor Unions

24. Would Unionize Negro

25. Negro Striker is Victim Under Espionage Charge

26. Negro Workers’ Advisory Committee

27. The Negro Enters the Labor Union

28. The Negro and the American Federation of Labor

29. The Negro and the Labor Union: An NAACP Report

30. Strikes

31. Memorial on Behalf of Negro Women Laborers

32. Eugene Kinckle Jones

33. Report of the Chicago Commission on Race Relations on Organized Labor and the Negro Worker

34. The Negro in Industry, by Herbert J. Seligmann

BLACK AND WHITE UNITE IN BOGALUSA, LOUISIANA

35. Loyalty League Kill 3 Union Men

36. Union Protests to Palmer

37. Views and Reviews, by James Weldon Johnson

38. Arrest Labor Riot Police

39. Report on Situation at Bogalusa, Louisiana by President of Louisiana State Federation of Labor

40. Labor and Lynching

PART VII: SOCIALISM, THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD, AND THE BLACK WORKER

Introduction

BEFORE THE WAR

1. Negroes, Capitalists, Socialists

2. Debs Scores Slanderers

3. A Socialist Carpenter on the Negro

4. The Race Question a Class Question

5. The Colored Strike Breaker, by Rev. George W. Slater, Jr.

6. Delegate Barnes of Louisiana

7. Gompers and the “Race Question”

8. A Warning to “Nigger” Haters

9. Race Prejudice

10. Appeal to Negroes

11. Wants to Know

12. Negro Workers!

13. “Big Bill” Haywood

14. Colored Workers of America Why You Should Join the I.W.W.

15. Race Equality

16. The Southern Negro and One Big Union, by Phineas Eastman

17. The Nigger Scab

18. Who Cares?, by Mary White Ovington

19. I.W.W. and the Negro, by Joseph Ettor

20. Radical Movement Among New York Negroes

COVINGTON HALL

21. Revolt of the Southern Timber Workers

22. Negroes Against Whites

23. Labor Struggles in the Deep South

24. Another Constitutional Convention

25. Views of Voc on Dixieland

26. Manifesto and By-Laws of the Farm and Forest Workers Union, District of Louisiana

27. The Democratic Party

28. As to “The Race Question”

29. “White Supremacy”

POST-WAR AND READJUSTMENT

30. Negro Workers: The A.F. of L. or I.W.W.

31. Why Negroes Should Join the I.W.W.

32. The March of Industrial Unionism

33. Justice for the Negro

34. There Is No Race Problem

35. I.W.W. Workers Busy in Chicago

36. Strike Mightier Than Bullets

37. Ben Fletcher

38. Warrant for the Arrest of Ben Fletcher

NOTES

INDEX