PART I: THE CHALLENGE OF EQUAL ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
1. Economic Status of Nonwhite Workers, 1955–62, by Matthew A. Kessler
2. Statement of Whitney M. Young, Jr.
3. 35% Black Jobless Rate Says Top Economist
4. Displaced Farm Workers Lose Industrial Jobs in Rural South, by Roy Reed
5. Black Workers: Progress Derailed, by Barbara Becnel
6. Last Hired, and Usually the First Let Go, by Charlayne Hunter
7. Black Manpower Priorities: Planning New Directions, by Walter W. Stafford and Lewis J. Carter, III
8. Black Workers Expose Kaiser Racism, by Mike Giocondo
9. Weber Case Hits Unions, Minorities
10. High Court Decision Backs Affirmative Action on Jobs, by David L. Perlman
11. A Kind of ‘Tolerance’, by Tom Wicker
12. Court Oversteps Bounds, by George F. Will
13. Voluntary Affirmative Action Meets Goals of Civil Rights Act
14. The Weber Decision, by James Johnson
15. Appeal of Black Conservatives Rings Hollow to Workers, Poor, by Norman Hill
16. Administration Policies Fail to Address Needs of Blacks, by Norman Hill
17. Progress of Black Americans Reversed Under GOP Policies, by Gus Tyler
18. Where Reaganomics Hits Hardest: Minorities & Women
PART II: THE AFL-CIO AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE
THE AFL-CIO AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLE
2. Correspondence to the Merger Convention
3. Report of the Resolutions Committee on Civil Rights, 1955
5. New Day Dawns for Negro Labor in AFL-CIO Merger Here, by Ethel L. Payne
6. About Randolph and Townsend
8. AFL-CIO Resolution on Civil Rights, 1957
9. AFL-CIO Resolution on Civil Rights, 1961
10. AFL-CIO Resolution on Civil Rights, 1963
11. AFL-CIO Resolution on Civil Rights, 1965
12. Statement by the AFL-CIO Executive Council on Civil Rights Act of 1966
14. AFL-CIO Executive Council Report on Civil Rights, 1967
15. AFL-CIO Resolution on Civil Rights, 1969
16. The Fight for Civil Rights Is Alive and Well
17. AFL-CIO Executive Council Report on Civil Rights, 1975
18. Real Exercise of Civil Rights Linked to Full Employment
19. Meany Hails Solidarity of Civil Rights Alliance
20. Labor’s Civil Rights Goals Linked to Demand for Full Employment
22. Lack of Opportunity Thwarts Strides Toward Racial Justice
A. PHILIP RANDOLPH: “GENTLEMAN OF ELEGANT IMPATIENCE”
24. Randolph Says Negro Not Free
25. AFL-CIO Report on Civil Rights, 1961
26. Council Rejects Randolph Charges, Backs AFL-CIO Rights Record
27. Along the N.A.A.C.P. Battlefront
28. “Take What’s Yours—And Keep It!”—Randolph
29. AFL-CIO Resolution on Negro Civil Rights—Labor Alliance, 1965
30. A “Freedom Budget” For All Americans
31. Minutes, A. Philip Randolph Institute
33. Comments on a “Freedom Budget” For All Americans
34. Phil Randolph, The Best of Men, Touched and Changed All of Us
35. Randolph’s Vision Recalled to Nation
36. A. Philip Randolph Memorial
37. House Votes Gold Medal Honoring Phil Randolph
38. The NAACP Hails the AFL-CIO Merger
39. Racism Within Organized Labor: A Report of Five Years of the AFL-CIO, 1955–1960
41. Reflections on the Negro and Labor, by Daniel Bell
43. Benjamin Hooks, Executive Director, NAACP, to the AFL-CIO Convention, 1979
44. NAACP to Join Labor’s Solidarity Day Protest
45. Roy Wilkins Provided Strength During Critical Civil Rights Era, by Bayard Rustin
46. Delegates Hit Reagan on Civil Rights Retreat
BLACK CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS SPEAK BEFORE AFL-CIO CONVENTIONS
PART III: RADICAL BLACK WORKERS
1. The Black Liberation Struggle, the Black Workers Congress and Proletarian Revolution
2. Excerpts from the Black Workers Congress Manifesto
3. Organize the Revolution, Disorganize the State!
4. Conditions Facing Black and Third World Workers
5. Black Workers Delegation in Vietnam
7. Wildcat! by Detroit NOC
8. Confront the Racist UAW Leadership
9. Black Workers Protest UAW Racism
15. Auto Mongers Plot Against Workers
16. Black Worker Shoots Foremen: Resolve Problem with Management
18. Black Workers: Key Revolutionary Force
20. Racism and the Workers’ Movement
21. United Community Construction Workers, 1971
22. Black Workers Fight Imperialism: Polaroid Corporation
24. Polaroid Blacks Ask Worldwide Boycott
PART IV: THE NEGRO-LABOR ALLIANCE
1. Minutes of the Negro Labor Assembly, October 14, 1959
2. Minutes, Negro Labor Assembly, September 30, 1965
4. Unless Something Special Happens, by Whitney M. Young, Jr.
5. Randolph Fears Crisis on Rights, by Raymond H. Anderson
6. Negro Jobs for a Strong Labor Movement
7. Frustration in the Ghettos: A National Crisis
8. NALC Head Asks Labor Aid March of Poor
9. Something New in the House of Labor
10. NALC Delegates Warn Against Redbaiters
11. NALC Convention Urges Political Action
COALITION OF BLACK TRADE UNIONISTS
12. Conference Proceedings, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists
13. Black Unionists Form Coalition
15. Newest Black Power: Black Leaders Building Massive Labor Coalition Inside Unions
16. Black Caucus in the Unions
17. Morals Concerning Minorities: Mental Health and Identity, by Bayard Rustin
18. Address to the 1969 Convention of the AFL-CIO, Bayard Rustin
19. The Blacks and the Unions, by Bayard Rustin
20. Labor’s Highest Award Honors Bayard Rustin, by James M. Shevis
UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA
21. Steelworkers Fight Discrimination, by David J. McDonald
22. USWA’s Civil Rights Program Wins Praise
23. Address by Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.
24. History of the United Steelworkers of America: Steel Union Buttresses Racism, by Staughton Lynd
25. National Ad Hoc Committee of Concerned Steelworkers Annual Meeting, 1972
26. Black Steelworkers’ Parley Spurs Representation Fight
27. The Fight Against Racism in the USWA
28. Union Battle Won in Memphis
29. Memphis: King’s Biggest Gamble
30. Economic Boycott in Memphis to Continue
32. In Memphis: More Than a Garbage Strike, by J. Edwin Stanfield
33. Address of Walter P. Reuther Before the Annual Convention of the NAACP, June 26, 1957
34. There’s No Half-Way House on the Road to Freedom
35. Watts: Where They Manufacture Hope
36. A Black Caucus Formed in Auto Union
37. Out of Struggle—Solidarity, by Cornelius Cobbs
38. Bannon Urges More Opportunity for Minorities to Enter Trades
39. Black Caucus Builds Black-White Solidarity at Chrysler Plant, by Johnny Woods
40. Black-White Caucuses Win UAW Offices, by Ted Pearson
41. Stepp Named First Black UAW Head At Big 3 Plant, by William Allan
42. Labor, Blacks Meet, Map Political Push
44. NY Building Trades Unions Face Discrimination Hearings
45. Building Trades Take Solid Stand Against Discrimination
46. Building Unions Boiling Over Gov’t. Hiring Ruling
47. Opposition to Philadelphia Plan
49. Black Claims Bias in Union Training Plan, by Martin J. Herman
51. Coalition Demands Hiring of Minority Workers
52. The Bricks and Mortar of Racism, by Paul Good
53. Civil Rights and Church Leaders Warn of Attacks on Black People
PART V: 1199 AND THE BLACK WORKER
1. Twenty Years in the Hospitals: A Short History of 1199
2. Local 1199 Makes Realistic Gains for its Newly-Organized Members, by Moe Foner
3. Local 1199 Sparks National Union for Hospital, Nursing Home Workers
4. Hospital Strike is Settled; $40 Minimum, Other Gains Won
5. One Big Union Established for All Hospital Workers: Local 1199 Hospital Division, AFL-CIO
6. More Hospitals Organizing into Local 1199
7. Strike Settlement Sets Stage for Organizing Drive to Build Strong 1199 in Hospitals
8. The Challenge of Bronxville: 1199 Takes It Up With All-Out Drive to Win Lawrence Hospital Strike
11. Ballad of the Bronxville Hospital Strike
12. For Sam Smith, Hospital Orderly: A Battle Whose Time Has Come, by John M. McClintock
13. The Plight of Hospital Workers
15. Pittsburgh: Hospital Workers Fight for Union Rights
16. Battle in Pittsburgh, by Dan North
18. Carolina Strike Unites Rights, Labor Groups, by Murray Seeger
20. National Organizing Committee Hospital and Nursing Home Employees
21. A Gathering Storm in Charleston, S.C.
22. Text of Speech by Mrs. Coretta Scott King at Dinner Honoring A. Philip Randolph
24. Charleston’s Rights Battleground, by Ronald Sarro
25. Text of Address by Mrs. Coretta Scott King to Rally at Charleston’s Stoney Field Stadium
26. Charleston: Our Strike for Union and Human Rights
27. 113-Day Hospital Strike in Charleston
28. Letters from Charleston Strikers
29. Is This Any Way to Run a Union?
30. Bread and Roses, by Moe Foner
31. Bread and Roses Union Brings Cultural Events to Members, by Kay Bartlett
32. Images of Labor (Gallery 1199), by Cynthia Nadelman
33. Strong ‘Images of Labor’, by Benjamin Forgey
35. United We Laugh, by Barbara Garson
36. Union Musical to Premiere at Boro Hospital
37. Hospital Revue Hits ‘Home’ for Employees
38. A Revue That’s Good Medicine, by Lucinda Fleeson