PART I: ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF BLACK WORKERS AT THE TURN OF THE 20TH CENTURY
1. Labor Questions in the South
3. Negro Labor in Factories, by Jerome Dowd
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
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
13. The Industrial Condition of the Negro in New York City, by William L. Bulkley
14. The Negro’s Quest for Work
15. Handicaps of Negro Mechanics, by Harry E. Thomas
17. The Negro as a Skilled Workman
18. The American Negro Artisan
19. Skilled Labor in Memphis, Tenn., 1908
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
RACE RELATIONS IN THE LABOR MOVEMENT
1. Race Feeling Causes a Strike
2. Status of the Negro in Trades Union Movement
6. Duty and Interest of Organized Labor
7. Organization and Leadership
10. The South: a Country Without Strikes
12. The 1904 Meat Packing Strike in Chicago, by John R. Commons
13. Woman’s Local in the Stockyards
15. View of a Black Union Official
16. The Inner Meaning of Negro Disfranchisement
17. Expert Negroes to Check Unions
19. Negroes and the Ladies Waist-Makers Union
21. “Take Up the Black Man’s Burden”
22. The Negro and the Labor Unions, by Booker T. Washington
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
35. Excerpt from a Speech by Samuel Gompers in St. Paul, Minnesota
36. Excerpts from Convention Proceedings of the Texas State Federation of Labor
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
44. Strike Situation is Unchanged
46. Sheriff Higdon Against Them
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
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
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
93. Race Prejudice Mixed With Economics
94. May Arbitrate Georgia Strike
96. Georgia Strike at a Deadlock
97. To Run Mail Trains with Negro Firemen
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
106. Race Strike on Georgia Railroads
110. Georgia Firemen Satisfied
1. Migration of Negroes to the North, by R. R. Wright, Jr.
2. Negro Exodus From the South, by W. T. B. Williams
6. To North: Bad Treatment, Low Pay
7. Why the Negro Leaves the South
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
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
9. Union Labor Denies Blame for Race Riots
10. The Massacre of East St. Louis
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
PART V: GEORGE E. HAYNES AND THE DIVISION OF NEGRO ECONOMICS
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
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
9. Organized Labor Not Friendly?
10. Negro Workers are Organizing
12. Mills Open to Colored Labor
13. Colored Men Denied Increase
15. Open All Labor Unions to Colored
16. The Case of the Women Strikers
18. The Changing Status of Negro Labor
19. The Black Man and the Unions
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
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
31. Memorial on Behalf of Negro Women Laborers
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
37. Views and Reviews, by James Weldon Johnson
39. Report on Situation at Bogalusa, Louisiana by President of Louisiana State Federation of Labor
PART VII: SOCIALISM, THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD, AND THE BLACK WORKER
1. Negroes, Capitalists, Socialists
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
14. Colored Workers of America Why You Should Join the I.W.W.
16. The Southern Negro and One Big Union, by Phineas Eastman
18. Who Cares?, by Mary White Ovington
19. I.W.W. and the Negro, by Joseph Ettor
20. Radical Movement Among New York Negroes
21. Revolt of the Southern Timber Workers
23. Labor Struggles in the Deep South
24. Another Constitutional Convention
26. Manifesto and By-Laws of the Farm and Forest Workers Union, District of Louisiana
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
35. I.W.W. Workers Busy in Chicago
36. Strike Mightier Than Bullets