SCHOLARLYCONTROVERSY
Race
and the CIO: The Possibilities for Racial
Egalitarianism During the 1930s and 1940s
Michael Goldfield
Wayne
State University
of Industrial Organiza
of the commitment
of the Congress
Assessments
to racial equality, and of the degree to which individ
tions (CIO, 1935-55)
the interests of African-American
ual CIO unions defended
and other
immense
workers
in
have
undergone
change. During the
minority
practice,
1930s and 1940s, many individuals and groups who supported racial equal
the CIO the leading organiza
ity, including W. E. B. Du Bois, considered
tion in the struggle for Black freedom. Today, many people,
including
Herbert Hill, consider the CIO unions of the 1930s and 1940s barely better
than the racially discriminatory
American
Federation
of Labor
(AFL)
unions that excluded African-American
workers from union membership
In this latter rendition, CIO unions, even during their
and employment.
were
another vehicle for maintaining
white employment,
merely
prime,
white possession
of more desirable
their
jobs, and other white privileges,
from AFL unions largely due to the industrial milieu
in which
differences
the CIO operated. Thus, the CIO unions were themselves a major obstacle
to African-American
not part of the
of the problem,
advancement-part
solution.
The truth, as is often the case, ismore complex. In this essay, I identify
I believe are the most important issues concerning
the CIO's racial
sketch the historiographie
policies,
disputes, and indicate in what direction
the answers lie. I examine how racially egalitarian
the CIO and its various
a union
the determinants
of how egalitarian
components
actually were;
was; what caused many CIO unions and the CIO as a whole to retreat from
to racial egalitarianism;
and the unrealized possi
their early commitments
bilities for egalitarian,
interracial unionism
in the United
States.
what
How
racially egalitarian
was
the CIO?
mainstream
industrial-relations
and labor-history
literature
Traditional,
more
to
at
refers
this
One
look
the rich
may
hardly
question.1
fruitfully
tradition which focuses specifically on African-American
labor, a tradition
its heyday by mainstream
labor historians
and
largely ignored during
industrial-relations
writers. Du Bois, Charles Wesley,
and Lorenzo Greene
and Carter Woodson,
for example,
the condition
documented
of Black
International
Labor and Working-Class
History
No. 44, Fall 1993, pp. 1-32
? 1993 International
Labor
and Working-Class
History,
Inc.
2
ILWCH, 44, Fall 1993
labor in the United
States and the many unions that played an important
to African
and promotional
role in denying employment
opportunities
American workers.2 The classic pre-CIO work is that of Sterling Spero and
Abram Harris, which analyzed both the exclusionary,
role of
oppressive
other unions,
the AFL and the degree to which the United Mine Workers,
and a number of left-wing groups were, or were not, more racially egalitari
an than the majority
of AFL unions.3
in
to the
this tradition naturally turned their attention
Those writing
not
While
the
in
and
1940s.
without
their
CIO
1930s
these
criticisms,
in their evaluations
of CIO racial prac
writers were remarkably positive
states:
tices. Du Bois, for example,
and most
the greatest
Probably
the working
among
masses
result [of the organization
steel
fellow
and
astonishing
movement
among
automotive
workers
in the
of
for
effort
about
toward
through
interracial
the
trade
have
same
the
interracial
last 30 years
has
been
objects.
tolerance
been
thrown
There
and
so successful
together,
has
black
been
understanding
... As
a
unions.
of the CIO in 1935], numbers of men
industries
striving
spread
effective
come
has
on
understanding.
in softening
like those in the
and white,
as
account
an
this
no
Probably
race prejudice
the masses.4
Horace
and Robert Weav
Cayton and George Mitchell, Herbert Northrup,
some
in
AFL
and
their
criticism
of
while
CIO unions,
er,
many
unrelenting
of CIO racial practices.5
echo Du Bois in their evaluation
in this tradition have assumed that there is a racially egalitari
Writers
an logic to industrial unionism. Herbert Gutman and Spero and Harris,
to
labor historians,
take several seminal, quite perceptive
have argued that
to egalitarian
there is a certain
unionism
when African
inevitability
American
workers make up substantial portions of the work force and
when the union has a "broad social philosophy."6
The logic of successful
of
industrial unionism
the
solidaristic
inclusive,
organization
requires
of low-skilled,
unions when the industries are composed
racially and eth
to
To
work
forces.
this
is
ignore
nically heterogeneous
logic
plant the seeds
of failure before the journey is begun. I will discuss later the degree to
which these structural determinants
have proven necessary or sufficient for
the formation of racially egalitarian unions.
of industrial unions emerged
in full force in
Highly critical evaluations
of
the 1960s. The most across-the-board
the
rejection
positive perspective
may be found in the work of Herbert Hill. His work, filled with scathing
a dra
criticism and exposure of supposedly
egalitarian unions, provides
matic wake-up
call for those who complacently
the
older, es
accept
tablished wisdom on the CIO. Hill argues that even the most "racially pro
industrial unions
have become white
gressive"
inevitably
job-control
These
unions
often
rhetoric for pur
organizations.
espoused
egalitarian
in an indus
poses of expediency when Blacks had substantial percentages
3
Race and the CIO
try, particularly
during early periods of new organizing. After becoming
to lock African
the unions used their organizations
established,
however,
out of access to superior jobs. Hill argues there were
American
workers
few exceptions,
including unions with left-wing leadership.7
Hill and many others assume that the central reasons for racial in
in the workplace
and within the labor market are the advantages
equalities
and the racist attitudes
that white workers
gain from such arrangements
one would have for all
that they express. Thus, the natural expectation
or racially integrated
labor unions
white
overwhelmingly
(presumably
and other minority
would be an excep
African-American
organizations
tion) is that they would be discriminatory.8
theories
My argument will be that each of the two major alternative
on the logic of industrial unionism and the other
the one that concentrates
an impor
that emphasizes
the racial attitudes of white workers-identifies
tant aspect of reality. Yet, as a comprehensive
argument or even combined
with the other, each theory is inadequate. To get to the root of things, we
must recognize
that there is now and was during the 1930s and 1940s a
range of racial practices by unions. We are best advised to follow Herbert
admonition
Northrup's
that
"dynamic
elements
. . .
prevent
any
clear-cut
of American
classification
labor unions according to their racial policies."9
not merely by union and indus
One must disaggregate
union practice-and
of African-American
look at the percentage
in a
workers
try. One must
the
union, an industry, an area; take into account the locale, especially
in the South; and distinguish between
of workers
the attitudes
percentage
and practices of local officers,
the international
union, and rank-and-file
of particu
members.
Finally, one must look at the historical development
lar unions, for some unions improved their racial policies, while the poli
cies of others deteriorated.
all these factors can one
Only by considering
a
I will refer here to racial practices
make
considered
judgment. Although
of CIO unions in all parts of the country, my focus will be on the South, for
it was in the South that racial discrimination
the
arguably was harshest;
was
most
in law, custom, and
system of white supremacy
rigidly entrenched
was most severely
to egalitarianism
social practice; and the commitment
tested.
Early
interracial
labor organization
Interracial
labor struggles, organization,
and varying degrees of egalitarian
in
existed
in
States
the United
instances long
isolated, atypical
practice
before the rise of the CIO. A characteristic
of all these early cases was a
laborers, whose joint organiza
significant proportion of African-American
in some fashion or another was seen as a prerequisite
tion with whites
for
Yet
the
racial
mix
the
of
leverage against employers.
obtaining bargaining
while seemingly a necessary
condition, was never
potential
constituency,
sufficient
by
itself
to insure
that
interracial
organization
would
be
at
4
ILWCH, 44, Fall 1993
was it even tried. Nor was suc
since only in rare circumstances
tempted,
to insure minimal
cessful
interracial organization
sufficient
success, be
cause the weight and wrath of challenged white supremacy,
in addition to
to unions, usually was enough to crush such struggles.
normal opposition
this heritage was not without
its influence during the 1930s.
Nevertheless,
Black and white farmers and the rural poor in the South united and
and the
struggled together briefly during Reconstruction
(circa 1866-76)
Populist era (circa 1888-96). Both efforts were defeated by a combination
of racist hysteria,
intense economic and social pressure against individuals
in the movements,
voter fraud, physical
and mur
intimidation,
violence,
der, leaving the lower classes cowed and defeated. White
supremacist he
gemony reemerged, more dominant than ever. The reaction to Reconstruc
tion and Populism
in the South made clear that whatever
the compelling
interracial organization
in the abstract, the likely con
logic of lower-class,
in practice would be harsh indeed. Nevertheless,
interracial
sequences
movements
to emerge in the South.
continued
working-class
Recent
of Black and
scholarship has uncovered extensive organization
white workers
in the South by the Knights of Labor during the 1880s and
1890s. Melton McLaurin
describes not merely
but inte
joint organization,
and successful political
activities.10
grated struggles against segregation
in the 1880s and 1890s shows the
Peter Rachleff's
study of Richmond
interracial unions, and the rise of Black political
strength of solidaristic
as well as the occasional
stands of the
power and influence,
forthright
on
racial issues.11 At the 1886 Knights
for example,
convention,
Knights
held
in Richmond,
the capital of the old Confederacy,
national
leaders
insisted that the city's theaters and hotels accept African
successfully
American
the South. In 1886, in the
delegates,
causing a stir throughout
Fourth Congressional
District
of North Carolina, made up of the eight
counties
centered
in
the
Raleigh-Durham
area,
state
master-workman
a pro-Union
John Nichols,
abolitionist printer and outspoken
supporter of
the Knights'
liberal racial policies, was elected to Congress.12 To be sure,
the policies of the Knights were highly contradictory,
but their activities in
Richmond
and elsewhere-especially
to integrated
their commitment
a frontal challenge
to white supremacy.
unions-often
necessitated
Varying degrees of interracial unity also were achieved by New Or
leans waterfront workers
from the end of the Civil War in 1865 until the
in the Crescent City in the 1920s.13 Tens of
of
union
crushing
organization
thousands of African-American
and white woodworkers
in Louisiana
and
of Timberworkers
and affiliated for a
Texas, organized by the Brotherhood
while with the Industrial Workers
of the World
im
(IWW), also achieved
and
and
between
1910
1913.14
And
the
pressive
solidarity
organization
to interracial organizing
mine workers,
discussed below, were committed
in
the Deep South from the 1890s on. These cases were atypical, although it is
unclear to what extent more was possible had there been additional energy
and commitment
directed
toward such attempts.15
Race and the CIO
5
In contrast to these exceptional
cases, most craft unions were openly
either formally or by custom. Many AFL
racist, excluding Black members
and the South, even
in the North
unions with
industrial jurisdictions,
where a so-called logic of industrial unionism dictated that they organize
interracial unionism,
African-American
thus giving up
workers,
rejected
on successful
from the start. Unions
industrial organization
that found it
to accept Black members
because of their high percentage
in a
necessary
trade, as in longshore and many of the trowel trades in the South, for
them into separate
locals and gave them
example,
generally
organized
inferior status. Primarily northern
industrial campaigns under AFL aus
in steel (1919) and meatpacking
failed in good part be
(1917-22)
of their inability to convince African-American
workers
that their
interests would be served by AFL unions. Prior to the 1930s, the AFL and
railroad unions, with several important exceptions,
independent
only var
ied in the degree and forms of implementation
of extreme racist practices.
Even the socialists within the AFL were hardly any different. Despite
the
antiracism of some left socialists at this time and even occasionally
that of a
few socialists on the right, the range of socialist principles varied by and
pices
cause
large from the outright
Eugene Debs.16
The CIO
break with AFL
racism of Victor
Berger
to the benign
neglect
of
racial practices
From its beginning
in 1935, the CIO espoused
racially egalitarian rhetoric.
The question naturally arises: To what degree did this espousal represent a
break from AFL racial policies? Or was it merely a continuation
of these
could not
practices in a new industrial setting, in which white workers-who
in unskilled
control the labor market for themselves
industrial workplaces
without enlisting the support of their fellow Black workers-made
the nec
answer
one
To
must
overtures?
this question
first look
essary opportunistic
at the roots of the egalitarian
stance in the CIO. Aside
from structural
in the CIO came from two
the impetus for egalitarianism
imperatives,
sources. The first, and initially defining
source, was that of the ex-AFL
unions that came to form the CIO, primarily the 600,000-member
United
as well as the needle-trades
Mine Workers
of America
unions
(UMWA),
centered
in New York City, particularly
the International Ladies Garment
and the Amalgamated
Workers
Union
of
(ILGWU)
Clothing Workers
America.
The second source was the left organizations,
the
especially
were central, and in many cases the
Communist
party, whose members
in most of the key unorganized
industrial sec
only important, organizers
tors (auto, longshore, steel, electrical, maritime,
and tobacco, among oth
ers). Secondary were a small number of other leftists, most of them associ
ated with A. J. Muste or with the left wing of the Socialist party, the latter
Folk School director Myles
group including Highlander
leaders of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union.
Horton
and
the
6
ILWCH, 44, Fall 1993
its
Any attempt to evaluate the racial practices of the CIO as a whole,
unions, and various fractions within itmust be multidimensio
component
nal and systematic, not merely anecdotal.
Six criteria seem pertinent
in this
regard.
First is the degree of union access itself. The independent
railroad and
Blacks and other minorities.
craft unions
many AFL
totally excluded
These unions served to control jobs for whites (or a particular white ethnic
and jobs to all others,
their
representation
enforcing
group), denying
claims by job actions, contracts, state licensing and apprenticeship
require
and even occasionally
ments,
(as was the case in the early 1930s with the
railroad unions) by murder. Other unions accepted Black members
but put
Black
A
further
them in inferior, subordinate,
locals.
of
level
separate
access was the degree to which Black workers occupied
and
leadership
paid
at what levels.
staff positions within a formally open, interracial union-and
had numerous African-American
local
The mine workers,
for example,
officials and even a number of district staff and organizers,
but almost no
Blacks
in national positions or on national staff.
the
Second, one wants to know the degree to which a union defended
was
most
Black
workers.
for
work
of
the
rights
employed
Equal pay
equal
elementary
doing away with differentials
principle,
by race or gender for
the same type of job. Even with equal pay for equal work, however, equal
rights often were denied. A higher-level
principle demanded
equal access
to upgrading, especially
to the most skilled and desirable jobs, which were
often designated
informally as the province of white males. These first two
criteria
involved
American
defending
the formal
rights of already-employed
African
workers.
Third
in the hiring and job-placement
In
is the discrimination
process.
were
or
Blacks
from
excluded
in
textile
electri
many industries,
hiring (as
cal), or, when hired, they were sent to the worst areas and jobs (foundry
work in many
industries, or coke plants in steel). With only department
no plant-wide
seniority-with
bidding on open
jobs-African-American
workers usually were frozen out from the better jobs from the beginning.
was difficult
to challenge
This type of discrimination
since
successfully,
attacks
basic issues of management
against it confronted
rights, of which
the right to hire is central.
Fourth was the degree to which a union supported or took the lead in
civil rights activities. In the South especially,
the more egalitarian
industrial
for antilynching
unions mobilized
their members
the
abolition
legislation,
of the poll tax, and the right to vote for African Americans.
of
Fifth, how extensive was egalitarian education and the involvement
in the struggles for equality both inside and
workers,
particularly whites,
outside
the workplace?
Sixth and finally, the union may be judged by the extent to which
social equality was practiced among members
and their families in union
social affairs.
Race and the CIO
7
in applying these standards must be made for time
Some qualifications
and place. Unions which held integrated meetings
and had any Black offi
cers at all in the Deep
South in the 1930s were often taking far more
to the system of white
audacious
greater challenges
steps and presenting
and
supremacy than many unions in the 1960s that had these characteristics
took highly visible, public civil rights stances but did little to combat dis
at the workplace.
crimination
With
let us turn our initial attention
to the
these criteria in mind,
UMWA
influence on CIO racial policy. We then shall look at several other
mainstream
CIO
African-American
The United Mine
unions,
which
also
had
substantial
percentages
of
workers.
Workers
of America
Coal mining
labor-intensive
during the 1930s was a highly competitive,
both ethnically and
industry. Its work force was extremely heterogeneous,
racially, although this varied a good deal by region.17 There were only small
in pay, skill, and general occupational
differentials
status; to the extent
at the top.
these existed, however, Black workers were underrepresented
Coal miners generally
lived in highly controlled,
isolated com
repressive,
violence and occa
strikes, there was often widespread
pany towns. During
sometimes
of a different
attempts to use strikebreakers,
sionally massive
or
racial
ethnic group from the strikers. Coal miners the world over always
to strike;18 U.S. coal fields were no exception.
have had a great propensity
case
These characteristics make coal mining in this country the archetypical
in which the logic of industrial unionism should have made labor organiza
tion interracial and egalitarian.
Before
the turn of the century, the defeat of large-scale miners' strug
had
clear both to broad cross sections of miners
made
and to the
gles
leadership of their union that successful organization
required intense soli
across racial and ethnic lines.19 It also required great
darity, especially
Some have argued that building
physical risks and exceptional militancy.
a
unions in such circumstances
pragmatic-some
might say oppor
requires
to include all workers and to make aminimal
tunistic-commitment
show of
concern for the grievances of all groups. It is, as Stanley Greenberg
notes,
a "plausible scenario," but one that is far from inevitable.20 The rejection
of white-only
in the South, but not only
unions put workers, particularly
to
in
the
whole
and
there,
system of white supremacy,
open opposition
hence to key economic
interests in the South, the mores of the community,
and in many places, the unrestricted power of the state. In the face of such
of organiza
many unions, despite the "logical" requirements
opposition,
The
in iron and
other
Association
chose
tion,
strategies.
Amalgamated
the
of
International
Association
Machinists
in
the
steel,
many industries,
Association
in
southern
International
Longshoremen's
(ILA)
longshore,
and the Mechanics
in auto all chose
Educational
Society of America
8
ILWCH, 44, Fall 1993
of
racially exclusionary
strategies, while the International Woodworkers
a
America
after
seized
of
in
control
the
union
right-wing
(IWA),
leadership
1940 with the active aid of the CIO national office, abandoned
any attempt
to organize
its largely southern Black constituency.
the UMWA,
from the time of its founding, acted upon a
By contrast,
whatever
its flaws and defects, which put it into conflict with
of
the
certain left-led
many aspects
supremacy. Unlike
system of white
a commit
unions that were organized
start
not
the
did
UMWA
with
later,
or
ment to an all-around
an
for
racial
with
struggle
equality
analysis of the
decision,
Rather,
importance of this struggle for class solidarity and consciousness.
to organize all workers
starting from a commitment
equally, the UMWA
was led to challenge white supremacy
in important ways and to fight for
certain interests of its African-American
members.
In Alabama,
union
tax.
the
voter
members
in
extensive
fought against
poll
They engaged
then mobilizing
them in
efforts, first registering white miners,
registration
to
co
in
assist
the
of
their
numbers
African-American
large
registration
and social activities, often in
workers. The union held integrated meetings
the racist attitudes of many white
places where these were illegal.21 Despite
coal
in
the
northern
of some
miners,
fields, and the hesitancy
especially
national leaders, the early UMWA, with itsmany Black officials,
staff, and
was
a
in
the
At
AFL.22
time
when
all
middle
organizers,
virtually
unique
class
African-American
organizations
were
antiunion,
one
National
Asso
of Colored
ciation for the Advancement
fieldworker
People
(NAACP)
in 1922 was extremely
who visited Birmingham
impressed by the number
the
lack
of
of Black UMWA
differentials
vis-?-vis their
organizers,
salary
white counterparts,
and the general egalitarian atmosphere
of union meet
of racially based pay differ
ings.23 The UMWA
fought for the destruction
a principled, determined
to
entials in the So\ith, and maintained
opposition
the Ku Klux Klan at the local and national
levels.24 The national office
from the beginning espoused a rhetoric of racial equality.
of the UMWA
John L. Lewis himself was an outspoken
advocate of civil rights, often
Black
The
UMWA
continued
its antidiscriminatory
promoting
leadership.
even
the
had
1930s
after
vir
practices during
they
successfully
organized
coal
in
all
of
the
nation's
those
the
South.
Wherev
miners,
tually
including
er they were located, highly mobilized
Black and white coal miners were
the shock troops in other interracial organizing efforts.
are
of the UMWA,
The accomplishments
in the South,
especially
at
of
the
defects
the
UMWA
both
the
and
local
many
impressive. Despite
national
levels with respect to its racial policies, Black coal miners
left no
doubt how they tallied the balance sheet. As Ronald Lewis argues, "What
ever local discrimination
blacks encountered
in their dealings with white
in the context of southern society the UMWA was the most pro
miners,
UMWA coal miners were
gressive force in their lives."25 African-American
the most steadfast and committed of unionists. They refused to scab and
were involved in many of the most heroic and violent battles waged by the
Race and the CIO
9
coal miners
union, including the armed march of thousands of Appalachian
on Blair Mountain.26
were duly recognized
Their contributions
by their
white union compatriots.
In spite of-or alongside-the
racially egalitarian thrust of the UMWA,
there was a continuing
thread of antiegalitarianism
in many
levels of the
union. A number of the defects of the UMWA with regard to its racial
policies have been described by Hill.27 The UMWA paper at times printed
racist jokes. Attitudes
toward African-American
strike breakers were both
harsher than those toward white ones and totally out of proportion
to their
to non-Blacks,
in comparison
numbers
the
racism
of
reflecting
general
society.28
The UMWA was highly variegated, with a range of racial practices by
district and leaders, even under the Lewis regime. Many
of the worst
attitudes and practices,
the
exclusion
of
Black
union
miners from
including
took place in the overwhelmingly
white northern
jobs by white unionists,
fields.29 A number of the officials who were to become central to the CIO
in the late 1930s and in the 1940s were among those who were
leadership
least firm on racial issues. Van Bittner,
later a vice president of the United
Steel Workers
and the head of the CIO's Operation Dixie (the CIO's post
World War II campaign to organize the South), is a case in point. Bittner's
in Alabama
appeal to Black miners
during a 1908 strike there smacks of
racial insensitivity at best; he warned that if they did not support the strike
the union would abandon
them forever, letting them "live in slavery the
rest of their days."30 At the 1924 UMWA
Bittner
tried to
convention,
weaken
the union's anti-Klan position
in an attempt
to appease
racist
in the northern fields. The overwhelming
of
whites, particularly
majority
as well as the small number of Black delegates,
white delegates,
vehe
mently
rejected the committee
proposal advocated
by Bittner.31 UMWA
Vice President Philip Murray
him
(later steel workers and CIO president)
self rooted in the northern fields, denounced
interracial "mingling" during
a 1928 strike in Pennsylvania,
strikebreakers
attacking African-American
in highly racist terms.32 Although
the halo of racial egalitarianism
hung
over all ex-UMWA
officials for a long time, it is clear that Phillip Murray,
to name merely
some of the more
Van Bittner,
and Adolph
Germer,
were
CIO officials,
ex-UMWA
among the least committed,
prominent
concerns more highly, even before
the
ranking other more conservative
anticommunist
in sharp
purges of the late 1940s. Their attitudes were
contrast not only to those of Black miners and officials,
but to those of
more "progressive" white miners and officials as well, especially
those on
the left.
In the end, the UMWA
failed its ultimate test. As the industry began
automating heavily after World War II, the union did not defend the inter
ests of itsAfrican-American
members. When
their manual
jobs were elimi
nated in greater proportion
than those of whites, the union did not demand
that they have priority in gaining newly created jobs over recently hired,
10
ILWCH, 44, Fall 1993
and company
lower-seniority white employees.
By not making mine-wide
wide seniority rights central to its demands, and by not believing
that it had
a responsibility
to fight the many
racially discriminatory
policies of the
in changing their work forces as employers
eliminated manual
companies
abandoned
its
jobs, the UMWA
jobs and added new machine
completely
Black members,
allowing them to be driven out of the industry.33 Miners
won mine-wide
seniority in the late 1940s, but by the time they had won
seniority inmany districts in the 1960s, most Black workers
company-wide
were
already
gone.34
Steel
of the
campaign to organize steel in the 1930s was a direct outgrowth
saw
L.
and
CIO
President
activities of the UMWA. UMWA
John
Lewis
the
of steel as critical to the stability of the miners' union. Thus,
organization
he gave it the highest priority within the CIO, assigning hundreds of orga
officials, and a large budget to the
nizers, numerous high-ranking UMWA
The
task; Lewis and his lieutenants also assumed day-to-day, hands-on control.
As a result, the initial activities of the Steel Workers' Organizing
Commit
tee (SWOC) seemed infused with the same racial idealism as that associ
ated with the UMWA.35
Steel had higher wage and more extreme occupational
differentials
were
even more
stratified
than coal mining;
hierarchies
but
job
ethnically,
so racially. Still, the multiethnic,
nature of the work force,
multiracial
in the steel centers of Pittsburgh, Chicago,
and Birmingham,
especially
seemed to require both an interracial and egalitarian
approach. To facili
and the building of racially egalitarian
tate such a campaign
unionism,
an alliance with the left-wing National Negro Con
the SWOC developed
workers.36
gress (NNC), which made special appeals to African-American
also directly enlisted the support of the Communist
party,
Z. Foster, contributed
which, according toWilliam
sixty of the initial two
a number of whom were Black. Without
these alli
hundred organizers,
ances and the many African-American
most
with
organizers,
left-wing
it is doubtful
that the SWOC campaign would have been suc
affiliations,
cessful. As a conscious
part of its interracial strategy, there were many
John L. Lewis
racially egalitarian
in many
activities
that characterized
the initial SWOC organizing
places.
In some situations, white workers
that antira
instinctively recognized
cist demands were at the root of strong solidaristic unions. White
steel
own
in
with
Black
revolu
their
comrades
their
"civil
workers
joined
rights
tion" in the late 1930s in newly organized steel towns lining the Alleghany,
in sight, from
and Ohio
rivers, desegregating
Monongahela,
everything
stores
to movie
restaurants
and department
and swimming
theaters
pools.37 Thus, even in the North, even when there were not large percent
workers, many white industrial unionists saw the
ages of African-American
11
Race and the CIO
fight for racial equality as a key to their own struggles for justice, dignity,
and a living wage. Parallel accounts emerge from other steel centers. Un
thrust was to disappear
like the UMWA,
this racially egalitarian
however,
once organization
was
as
a
characteristic
of
the
union
defining
quickly
did burst for
and there, battles against discrimination
Here
the steel industry had been organized.
Invariably led by Black
reluctant
these struggles usually received at best only minimal,
workers,
resonance
had
and
little
within
from
the
the
union.38
support
leadership
are only partly explained by the racial
The reasons for this outcome
racial privileges
hierarchy of wages and jobs and the associated entrenched
of an important
segment of white workers.
important was the
Equally
and
control of
of
rank-and-file
democratic
militancy,
organizations,
stifling
the union by the highly bureaucratic Murray
The
establishment
leadership.
the kind of struggle that took
of the first contract with U.S. Steel without
in
and other industries allowed
the
auto,
place
longshore, meatpacking,
of
Steel
Workers
America
United
CIO-appointed
(USWA) President Phil
to
assert
all
and stifle oppor
control,
officials,
Murray
appoint
ip
top-down
rank-and-file
influence. This too was an important
tunities for democratic
as nonelected
former Lewis supporters controlled all
legacy of the UMWA,
the top positions
in the new steelworkers'
union. Communist
and other
completed.
ward after
leftist
their
organizers,
services
now
unnecessary,
were
quickly
removed.
all segments of the work force to engage in
longer needing to mobilize
that were designed
successful struggle against the company, demands
spe
to enlist the support of African-American
workers
in
cifically
dropped
priority. Privileges of white workers were frozen, and highly discriminatory
of depart
systems were strengthened
by the acceptance
job-classification
No
rather than plant-wide
priority. These discriminatory
provisions,
in court
codified by the union, were successfully
contractually
challenged
during the 1970s; one of the most important cases was the consent decree
at the Sparrows Point, Maryland,
Bethlehem
Steel plant, which forced the
union and the company to pay aggrieved Black workers millions of dollars
in pay equity.
stance became
The USWA's nonegalitarian
in 1949
firmly solidified
and 1950 with its destruction of Mine Mill. In destroying
this largely Black
union, the USWA made racist, anticommunist
appeals to white workers,
mental,
their leaders, and their white
workers,
attacking African-American
in more detail below.)
porters.
(The Mine Mill case is discussed
sup
Auto
Some of the same impulses that led to the abandonment
of egalitarianism
existed in the United Auto Workers
the
by the USWA
(UAW), although
was
situation
was more
strong
not
nearly
so
extreme
for
a number
of
reasons.
First,
there
in the UAW. The union had
initial rank-and-file
democracy
a
and
of
locals
history
struggle, necessitated
by the more prolonged
ILWCH, 44, Fall 1993
12
influ
the union. Second, while communist
battle to establish and maintain
like Hosea
ence-with
the exception of certain indigenous Black members
and in isolated locals in Little Steel-was
elimi
in Birmingham
Hudson
in the UAW communist
influence and pres
nated quickly in the USWA,
sure for racial equality had a longer history. Third, the social-democratic
in principle to racial equality than the
Reuther
group was more committed
of
who were placed in the leadership
leaders
conservative
group
relatively
As a result, the Reuther
group's tolerance for overtly racist
much lower than that of the steel leadership group.
the factional struggles in the auto union during the 1930s and
to support the Communist
workers
tended in large majority
Reuther had his strongest base of support among privileged,
to take the lead or support
skilled workers, who were not moved
white,
struggles for racial equality, to say the least. Thus, the Reuther
leadership
to advance the cause of Black workers in the shop. For
had little motivation
at Local 6 UAW, a large Chicago-area
construction
example,
equipment
a strong
Harvester
Company
(IHC), where
plant of the International
of the USWA.
behavior was
Still, in
1940s, Black
led caucuses.
War II period,
in the post-World
existed
left opposition
communist-led
racial equality was an issue pushed by the left caucus and largely opposed
caucus. When
the plant reopened
for
Reuther
by the pro-administration
in 1946 (during the war it had been a Buick engine
civilian production
to janitorial
initially were confined
jobs, mostly
plant), Black workers
The left caucus, which had
below the shop floor, cleaning the washrooms.
the allegiance of the majority of Black workers,
led the successful fight to
and assembly-line
open machining
jobs to Black workers. The nearby left
wing Farm Equipment
in Chicago, which had
stance on such issues,
and layoffs at an early
Workers Union
(FE) local at IHC's Tractor Works
a better civil rights record and a far more aggressive
won complete plant-wide
seniority for job bidding
time. Local 6, despite UAW
rhetoric, never won or
seniority.39
fought for full plant-wide
of racially egalitarian
It is important to note that the establishment
was
even
not
of
and efforts. The
with the best
intentions
unions
easy,
and
the
racially circumscribed
discriminatory
hiring and job placement
were not pri
in
industrial
for upward mobility
workplaces
opportunities
a
and
attitudes
of
workers.
Rath
of
the
activities
white
consequence
marily
was
of
of
the
white
er, this discrimination
supremacy
part
general system
interests in the South,
and reinforced by large agricultural
promulgated
labor required poor, power
whose desire and need for cheap agricultural
on the
that kept African Americans
less Black labor and racial hierarchies
owners had
bottom and Blacks and whites divided. Southern plantation
areas of the
in the black-belt
political power and influence, not merely
in
rest
but
the
of
the South as
South which they dominated
economically,
as
a
even
of
in
the
the
whole.40
This
and
well,
country
system,
politics
backed
by economic
and political
power,
legal and illegal repression,
and
Race and the CIO
13
much public opinion,
could not always be confronted head on, although it
is easy to see that the reticence of racial conservatives mainly was an excuse
for inaction rather than a measured
analysis of reality. There often was very
to demands
from
white
for racial equality;
workers
resistance
this
strong
is often exaggerated. With
resistance was real, but its permanence
these
to look at several left-led unions to see whether
it is instructive
caveats,
and behavior differed from that of the UMWA
their commitment
and the
more mainstream
CIO unions.
Left-Led
Mine,
Mill
Unions
and Smelter Workers
International Union
of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers
of America
as
to
roots
in
Mine
its
had
the
Western
Federation
Mill)
left-wing
(referred
a mainstay
of Miners,
of the Industrial Workers
of theWorld at the time of
in 1905. Such a tradition, it should be noted, did not
the IWW's founding
to
to the
lead
necessarily
egalitarian practice, or even to a commitment
The
workers.
One organization
that had
of African-American
the Sailors International Union-Sailors
Union of the Pacific
is a case in point. SIU-SUP's
syndicalism, while rooted in
(SIU-SUP),
an all-white, eventually
IWW tradition, developed
racist, job-control ori
organization
IWW roots,
of America
entation. The right wing of the International Woodworkers
in
the Northwest
also had its roots in the IWW, but its syndicalism
empha
sized local control,
and
anticommunism,
turning it toward provincialism,
of the South and that region's largely African-American
abandonment
Mine Mill's tradition was less provincial. At the time of the
woodworkers.
union's
revitalization,
there
was
an
active
minority
of
communists
commit
to
interracial unionism
and the vigorous
of African
organization
the over
American
workers. This influence was particularly
among
strong
area.
in
Black
metal
miners
the
The
communists,
Birmingham
whelmingly
a distinct minority
in 1934, and highly critical of both the local and interna
tional Mine Mill leadership, gained dominant
influence in the union after
in 1936; elected as a noncommunist,
Reid Robinson was elected president
ted
he quickly gravitated
toward communist politics after his election.
in the Birmingham,
Alabama
Metal mining
area, like coal mining
classifications
there, was done by a work force whose pay and occupation
were not highly differentiated.
In the early 1930s, eighty percent of this
work force was Black. Pay lines, mine cars, and work areas were integrated
and had both Black and white
foremen,
although
integrated crews and
whites working for Black foremen were eliminated by the companies
after
Mine Mill became established.41 From the beginning of organizing
in 1933,
Mine Mill had far greater support from Black workers
than from white,
14
ILWCH, 44, Fall 1993
although at certain times, such as during 1938, when Mine Mill won rein
statement of all 160 workers fired in a 1936 strike, there was also significant
of Black workers,
white support. In part because of the preponderance
but
were
also because
whom
of the growing role of communists
of
(many
Black), Mine Mill from the outset had "an air of civil rights activism."42
for better working condi
Mine Mill not only fought in the workplace
tions and racial egalitarianism,
but it campaigned
actively in the commu
and
miners
with
Alabama
Mine Mill members
steelworkers,
nity. Along
voter
in
and
in
registration
engaged extensively
campaigns against the poll
tax and lynching, giving these unions the character of broad-based
social
as well as workplace
movements
D.
Robin
G.
claims
organizations.
Kelley
to leadership positions within Mine Mill
that "more blacks were elected
than any other CIO union, and its policy of racial egalitarianism
remained
no
or
he
measures.44
unmatched,"
although
gives
figures
comparative
Even after the defeat of Mine Mill in workplace
elections
in
representation
area in 1949 and 1950, the union continued
to be heavily
the Birmingham
involved in civil rights activity. In Bessemer,
large numbers of Mine Mill
the
NAACP
members
joined
chapter, taking it over and carrying out an
set
of
civil
activities
the early 1950s.45
rights
throughout
aggressive
to challenge
in not attempting
Mine Mill made a strategic mistake
more vigorously
the change in hiring policy of Tennessee
Coal, Iron and
in the Birmingham
Railroad
(TCI, the largest mine and steel company
Labor Relations
1938 National
Board victory,
area). After Mine Mill's
to
white workers
joined the union in large numbers. TCI then attempted
divide the work force. Whereas
hired mostly Black
they had previously
after 1938 they predominantly
workers,
began hiring whites. The company
also gave better jobs to those workers who did not join Mine Mill.46
The successful attempt of the steelworkers
in 1949 and 1950 to take
over Alabama Mine Mill
locals relied on overtly racist appeals to white
who told an all-white meeting of Mine Mill
workers. A CIO representative
members
that they would have to accept Blacks when
they joined the
locals in the
all-white
USWA was quickly replaced by one who promised
union. Just before the 1949 TCI election between
the steel
steelworkers'
the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) staged a large rally in
workers and Mine Mill,
the early antiracism of the SWOC, the
support of the steelworkers. Despite
leadership of the union, led by CIO president Philip Murray, barely com
to hide their
In demagogic
fashion, the steelworkers
attempted
plained.
racism and further claiming
activities by accusing Mine Mill of fomenting
Black local union with its Black leadership was
that this overwhelmingly
in tactics reminiscent of the
itself allied with the KKK.47 The steelworkers,
on the Populist
and in the counterattack
KKK during Reconstruction
to
isolate Black workers by physically attacking the
movement,
attempted
In at least one
small number of whites who remained loyal to Mine Mill.
at
the Muscoda Local 123 in Bessemer, Black Mine Mill members
instance,
to successfully defend
from the Black community
rallied armed contingents
Race and the CIO
15
assaults.48 These
their white union brothers from steelworker-led
racist
were among many events that
activities and assaults by the steelworkers
moved
the CIO as a whole from an incipient antiracism to acquiescence
to,
if not open support for, discrimination
Black
workers.
against
em
One could argue, of course, that the structure of metal-mining
of African-American
and the high percentage
workers
in the
ployment
area
to
led
Mill
Mine
union
interracial,
initially
egalitarian
Birmingham
to
of white workers
ism, and that the reaction of the increasing percentage
union policies was also inevitable.
Such an analysis, however, while con
taining an important grain of truth, would belittle two important factors.
of alternative
first is the conscious
choices
The
groups.
leadership
Mine Mill chose to emphasize demands for racial equality,
Communist-led
workers. The con
appealing directly to the interests of African-American
was
to
servative Murray
make
racist
willing
leadership
appeals to white
to defeat the commu
workers and abandon the interests of Black workers
nists. Both leadership groups made conscious choices which were not pre
the victory of the Murray
determined.
Second,
leadership was not preor
the high point of Cold War
dained
either. They
only won
during
in the
anticommunism,
supported by local and regional white supremacists
the CIO national office, the might of the
South, "Dixiecrat" politicians,
federal government,
and USWA violence against Mine Mill members
and
officials. And even then, the critical elections were close. The significance
cannot be
of structural factors and the racial attitudes of white workers
assessed without
taking account of these decisive components.
Food,
Tobacco,
and Agricultural
Workers
Union
(FTA)
The FTA, unlike Mine Mill, USWA, UMWA,
and the UAW, was an almost
It was led and staffed by communists
from its
totally southern union.
the highly energetic,
inception. In 1937, John L. Lewis appointed
recently
to
fired economics
instructor and open communist Donald Henderson
form the United Cannery, Agricultural,
and Allied Workers
of
Packing,
of the FTA (which became
America
the forerunner
the
(UCAPAWA),
name of the union
was
in 1944). FTA's membership
initially over
Black, with two main bases of support. The first was in the
whelmingly
in the Memphis
from the union's strongholds
delta, emanating
Mississippi
in cotton compress
area, and made up of workers
plants, cottonseed
plants, feed mills, and wholesale
grocers.49 The second stronghold was in
and North Carolina.
the tobacco processing
In both
plants of Virginia
places, the union had strong Black leadership. The most important local in
Local 19, was led by a Black man, John Mack Dyson,
also a FTA
Memphis,
was
The
FTA
of
tobacco
executive
board member.
anchor
strength in
over
Local
22
with
its
North Carolina
in
Winston-Salem,
10,000 members
the R. J. Reynolds
plant there. The national union helped
mote Moranda
Smith, a Black female leader of the local,
train and pro
to become
the
ILWCH, 44, Fall 1993
16
notable
for its
director of the Southeast
region.50 FTA was especially
a
women
and
within
officials
the
Black
many
striking anomaly
organizers,
CIO.51
to
In both main areas of FTA strength, conditions were inhospitable
"In
few
industries
have
conditions
unionism. As Herbert Northrup
argues,
as in the tobacco industry."52 CIO activity began there
been so unfavorable
women
stemmers walked out at the
in 1937, when 400 African-American
in Richmond.
I. N. Vaughan Company
Shunned by the AFL's Tobacco
the women
Workers
International Union,
finally gained support from the
a communist-led
Southern Negro Youth Congress,
youth section of the
NNC.
"Within forty-eight hours the strikers had secured wage increases, a
forty-hour
week,
and
union
recognition.
. . What
.
is even
more
remark
before
is that the strikers were considered
absolutely
unorganizable
with
victories
Other
the
tobacco
workers
walked
out."53
followed,
they
CIO.
affiliating with the UCAPAWA,
eventually
of
FTA organizing of tobacco workers had many of the characteristics
a "crusade," with civil rights struggles occupying a central place. The union
activities involving both Black and white work
had extensive
educational
of Local 22. They also held a
ers, including a large library for members
wide array of integrated social and athletic affairs, including picnics involv
cultural
ing thousands of workers.54 Local 22 was a center of oppositional
Paul
in
of
and political
Robeson
support
appeared
activity.
frequently
also received entertainment
and
strikes and major events. FTA members
from Zephilia Horton, Woody Guthrie,
and Pete Seeger.
encouragement
to gain civil rights and greater political power
in
The union attempted
voter
and in North Carolina
Winston-Salem,
generally,
by extensive
able
and by supporting
Hun
candidates.
"prolabor"
registration
campaigns
into the Winston-Salem
also poured
dreds of FTA members
NAACP,
commit
turning it into a large branch with over 1,000 members militantly
for the Black newspaper
the
ted to civil rights actions.55 A correspondent
Pittsburgh Courier wrote in June of 1944: "I was aware of a growing soli
darity and intelligent mass action that will mean a New Day in the South.
and mingle with the thousands of workers
One cannot visit Winston-Salem
in thought and action. If there is a 'New'
without
sensing a revolution
he is to be found in the ranks of the labor movement."56
Negro,
In Memphis,
of
the UCAPAWA
began organizing
large numbers
Black workers who also previously were thought to be unorganizable.
CIO
workers generally were
organizers
quickly found that African-American
far more
ready to join and become active in industrial unions than white
in the South. This often led moderate
CIO leaders,
workers,
particularly
like Van Bittner and others, to refrain from organizing Black workers first,
for fear of alienating whites, whom
they believed would not join largely
The communist-led
had no
Black organizations.
UCAPAWA,
however,
an
and began building
such hesitation
Black membership
overwhelmingly
inMemphis.
The militancy
of Local 19 and its almost unbroken
string of
17
Race and the CIO
successes stimulated
of white workers
the organization
in both
organizing
were
in
those
and
that
white57-thus
integrated workplaces
overwhelmingly
at the
CIO leaders were,
showing that the fears of racially conservative
The
in
racial
differences
between
alterna
very least, exaggerated.
practices
tive CIO leadership groups are placed in sharp contrast inMemphis.
who owed his
Conservative
CIO director W. A. Copeland,
Memphis
to
national
leader
and
CIO
Murray
ally John Brophy,
position
largely
white
of
Black
and
workers
and expressed
integrated meetings
opposed
venom
Black
led
FTA's
for
racial
workers,
policies.58
by UCAPAWA
special
in militant
actions during World War II, in defiance of
Local 19, engaged
no-strike pledges. They wanted not merely wage increases but the elimina
tion of racially discriminatory
wage scales and job-classification
systems
to take one instance, "kept
like those at the Buckeye
Company, which,
in the plant, forcing them to do the same
blacks in the lowest positions
work as whites for half the pay."59 These activities were opposed by more
Tennessee
and Forrest Dickenson.
CIO leaders like Copeland
fellow
Guild
leader Pete Swim did
and
Memphis
Newspaper
Copeland
the racism of white workers,
and opposed
little to attempt to overcome
local
all
of
unions.
Swim
activities
national
CIO
civil
rights
fought
virtually
to combat racial discrimination;
FTA
criticized
Local
directives
Copeland
19 for hiring a Black office secretary, opposed the use of Blacks as negotia
"racial mixing" of whites and Blacks at CIO union
tors, and denounced
also
insisted on calling Blacks by their first names while
parties. Copeland
conservative
addressing
whites
as
"Mr.,"
"Mrs.,"
or
"Miss."
He
and
other
state CIO director
attacked the proposal of white moderate
at the Highlander
Folk
pher to hold integrated CIO meetings
anticommunist
spring of 1945.60 Yet it was these extremely
southern CIO leaders whom
the national CIO
conservative
Dixie and in the battle to
and back in Operation
promote
Racist
leaders were supported by the CIO national office,
conservatives
Paul Christo
School in the
and racially
office was to
purge leftists.
not so much
leaders agreed completely with their racial atti
because the CIO national
communist
influence and to
the desire to eliminate
tudes, but because
leaders and national political elites
achieve respectability
among business
to building interracial solidarity or even
far outweighed
their commitments
to building a dynamic growing labor movement-a
legacy for which today's
are still paying dearly.
dwindling union organizations
of FTA from the CIO in 1950 and the attacks on its
The expulsion
were
to parallel
the attack on Mine Mill. Tobacco
unionism was
locals
to
the complete destruc
crushed when the CIO onslaught against FTA led
tion of unionism at the Winston-Salem
Reynolds
plant. The CIO's racism
there was to haunt it in the future. In 1956, when the newly merged AFL
CIO made a major effort to organize that plant, it lost the election because
Black workers
tobacco union.61 In the
refused to support the AFL-CIO
inMemphis.
Antiracist white commu
early 1950s Local 19 was destroyed
nists
also
were
expelled
from
the
union
movement.
These
actions,
com
18
ILWCH, 44, Fall 1993
bined with the activities of southern Dixiecrats
and segregationists,
effec
civil rights activity in the South
tively ended the upsurge of working-class
during the late 1940s and early 1950s.62
United
Packinghouse
Workers
of America
(UPWA)
in an industry with a racially and ethnically
The UPWA
operated
highly
work force, ranging from all white, largely Protestant,
differentiated
areas,
to the heavily
including the radical Hormel
plant in Austin, Minnesota,
and white Eastern European
African-American
labor forces in Chicago,
the center of the meatpacking
the meat
industry. As a whole, however,
a
had
white
packing industry
majority.
the more
The failure to organize
recently hired African-American
had proven central to the defeat of the 1917-22 union
In contrast,
organizing
campaign.63
"crusading on the race issue" by the
CIO-established
Workers
Committee
Packinghouse
Organizing
(PWOC)
was
to
the
late
1930s
the
David
during
key, according
Brody, in the success
of packinghouse
ful organization
in Chicago.64 The struggle to
workers
over
interracial
took
many years and was long and tortu
forge
unity
place
ous. The groundwork was laid, according
to the seminal works of Rick
and
the
extensive
interracial organizing of the
Halpern
Roger Horowitz,
by
in
and
communists
other
cities. This interracial
unemployed
by
Chicago
concerns
to
and
mutual
of
the
various
unity
sensitivity
groups was forged,
in opposition
often
in
sometimes
and
the
face
of
to,
of, the obtuseness
workers
in Chicago
CIO leaders, including Van Bittner,
the first appointed
many mainstream
head of the PWOC.65 Bittner's role was to foreshadow his insensitivity on
bureaucratic
orientation-two
factors
questions of race and his repressive,
that would quickly doom Operation
Dixie.
The UPWA was in certain ways more successful
in building
stable,
antiracist unionism than any other CIO affiliate. Its
interracial, egalitarian,
to
other
left unions, was based on several factors. First,
success, compared
of Mine Mill,
unlike the experience
the racial composition
of the meat
became
Black
War
World
II, as white
packing industry
increasingly
during
workers
left to find more desirable
the
civil
jobs. Thus,
strong
rights stand
the union,
whites,
supported
initially by numerous
gained greater
from the increased number of African Amer
after
the
both
1930s,
strength
icans and from the growing contingent of Hispanic packinghouse
workers.
a
central
communists
role
in
the
Second, although
union, especially
played
of
in Chicago,
its national leadership. UPWA president
they did not dominate
was
a
noncommunist
Helstein
radical who had the respect of all
Ralph
factions in the union, including conservatives.
Helstein
sheltered and ap
was
the
to civil rights.
communists
and
himself
committed
preciated
highly
The union thus escaped expulsion
from the CIO, but it did not completely
like other CIO unions
its character
that purged
their left-wing
change
leaders.
Race and the CIO
19
Unlike
in FTA and Mine Mill, African Americans
remained a minor
a
in
one;
were,
UPWA,
however,
ity
although
large
they
strategically
on the all-important
placed as a majority
killing floors. Nevertheless,
UPWA
shared many of the antiracist commitments
and activities of these
was
a
other two unions. Although
racist,
Chicago
highly segregated
city,
or
white supremacy was not as all-encompassing
there as itwas inMemphis
From
the beginning,
union committees
and executive
Birmingham.66
a key to the
In
boards were racially and ethnically
1938,
integrated.67
of the large Armour
of Black
organization
plant, with its high percentage
workers, was the successful union demand to remove the stars on the time
cards of Blacks, which easily identified them as the first to be laid off.67
The union had a broad range of fully integrated social activities in Chicago,
and bowling leagues; child care and recre
including baseball, basketball,
ation facilities; dances; and picnics.69 Along Ashland Avenue,
in the heart
of the meatpacking
district, groups of white and Black workers desegre
taverns. The first contracts in Chicago
gated all the formerly whites-only
that Black workers be hired at least in
contained
language guaranteeing
to their percentage
in the Chicago
The 1944
proportion
population.70
UPWA convention
comfort of an Omaha hotel
gave up the air-conditioned
to meet
that refused to house Black members
in a sweltering union hall.
the war, the union led successful
During
job actions to integrate formerly
all-white departments;
after the war it forced the hiring of Blacks in sales
and supervisory positions.71 By 1952, the UPWA had obtained
the deseg
regation of facilities in all its southern plants.72
The active and enthusiastic militancy
of African-American
workers
had a direct, positive impact on southern white workers. African-American
the lower
Chicago Armour workers proved to be the key to abolishing
for largely white
Like the FTA in
southern workers.
wage differentials
the NAACP.
Ac
UPWA members
Winston-Salem,
joined and energized
cording to Michael Honey, UPWA was a major union supporter of the
Southern Christian Leadership
Conference
(SCLC) and other civil rights
and activities in the South during the 1950s and early 1960s.73
organizations
toMartin Luther King from its
Unlike
the UAW, which contributed money
or
education
UPWA mo
among members,
treasury with little publicity
for activity and education,
bilized members
in all its
soliciting contributions
stance on civil rights issues in the late
locals. Its increasingly
aggressive
1940s and throughout the 1950s energized
its Black and Hispanic members
but led to diminished
activity in the union from white members,
although
the union continued to receive tacit support from the overwhelming major
It is tempting to speculate that white work
ity of the whole membership.74
ers might have continued
their high level of activity within the union (as
at
FE's
the
they did
Chicago IHC Tractor Works
civil-rights-oriented
local)
if other larger unions had chosen the path of the relatively small UPWA.
Mine Mill, and UPWA-the
Clearly, in all three unions-FTA,
egalitar
ian policies of the union were a result not only of the stance of the union
20
ILWCH, 44, Fall 1993
and pressure from the high per
leadership, but of the active involvement
in these unions. It is reasonable
to
workers
centages of African-American
and activities of those left unions with
examine
further the commitment
of African-American
workers.
only small percentages
United Electrical
Workers
(UE)
The UE, for good reason, has been a favorite target for those critical of the
Communist
party's racial policies in unions. Until its removal from the CIO
in 1949, UE was a stable union with a successful organization
of its major
In addition, a skilled communist
jurisdictions.
leadership enjoyed consis
tent support from a majority of the membership.
Herbert Hill uses the UE
as his example
to substantiate
the following assertion:
"Those industrial
a
white
with
that were controlled
for
unions
membership
predominantly
were
no
to
the
leaders
Communist
many years by
loyal
Party
substantially
in their racial practices
than other labor organizations."75
Hill
different
to discriminatory
gives examples of UE indifference
hiring practices at the
in
Local 1111 since
UE
Milwaukee,
by
Allen-Bradley
plant
represented
1937. He also cites a case of the left-wing International
Longshoreman's
Union's
charges over ILWU prac
(ILWU) battles against discrimination
in
tices in Portland, Oregon.76 Donald Critchlow also discusses weaknesses
to fighting discrimination
War
II.
He
the UE's commitment
World
during
to the largely white,
communist-led
National
compares UE unfavorably
was
more
which
Critchlow
in
Maritime Union
feels
far
consistent
(NME),
was
sev
its fight for egalitarianism.
the
electrical
Although
industry
only
eral percent Black, Critchlow
argues that UE districts in the New York
to the UE national organi
New Jersey and St. Louis areas were exceptions
a program to combat discrimi
zation. New York UE Local 1225 developed
in hiring, which yielded a significant
nation
increase in the number of
Blacks in the electrical industry there.74 Critchlow attributes this activity in
of Black workers
New York and St. Louis to the higher percentages
in the
was
New
in
electrical
the
York,
industry there, although
figure
probably
never much over ten percent. Critchlow
claims that the UE national office
never gave much support to or publicized
the efforts of these districts,
to
and
in a
antidiscrimination
its official involvement
service
UE
lip
despite
host of civil rights activities.
account of the UE,
Ronald
confirms
Schatz, in a more sympathetic
as
of UE leaders on issues of discrimination
both the lack of aggressiveness
well as their inability to counter management
discrimination
and the racial
on the other hand,
prejudices of their white members.78 Mark McCulloch,
claims that the UE was miles ahead of the International Union of Electrical
Workers
(IUE), the CIO union set up to replace the UE. The UE, Mc
Culloch
claims, had successfully
fought for the job rights of already
women
and
One of the keys to this struggle was
Black
workers.
employed
the winning
and maintaining
of plant-wide
seniority
for job bidding
and
21
Race and the CIO
to retain
the 1950s, the UE
layoffs. Throughout
successfully
struggled
to
while
the
IUE
retreated
department
plant-wide
seniority,
seniority, lock
women
into
and
workers
inferior
and
job
ing
minority
promotion
paths,
thus replicating the discriminatory
in the
practices supported by the USWA
not
steel industry.79 Still, the UE
to
does
have
been
appear
leadership
or
as
as
to
committed
racial
their
rhetoric
egalitarianism
nearly
aggressive
suggested or as the left leaderships of a number of other unions.
National
Maritime
Union
Critchlow
finds NMU
racial practices during World War II much different
union with no more
from those of the UE. The NMU was a communist-led
than ten percent Black membership.
The union was formed in 1937, as
militant workers broke from the segregated
International
Seaman's Union
Black
and
white
sitdowns
that
The
unified
formed
the union, ac
(ISU).
became a part of the union's tradition. The union
cording to Critchlow,
and had large numbers of Black dele
elected a Black secretary-treasurer
The NMU cautiously but steadfastly
gates at conventions.80
struggled for
the full rights of Blacks on ships. They did this even in the face of racist
to white workers
Union-Sailor's
appeals
by the Sailor's International
a syndicalist union supported by the
Union
of the Pacific (SIU-SUP),
virulent anticommunism
led them to
party, whose
third-camp Workers
NMU.
The
support an overtly racist union against the communist-led
NMU conducted education campaigns on the role of Blacks in the industry
on civil rights activities.
and reported extensively
Its education
depart
headed by Leo Huberman,
successful struggles for
widely publicized
activities through
integration and carried on a steady stream of educational
on ships, and in
its newspapers,
books, organized discussions
pamphlets,
Inland Boat division of the NMU,
port lectures. The communist-led
repre
on the southern Mississippi
River,
senting a 100 percent white constituency
not only agitated around civil rights issues but successfully mobilized
its
to support the struggles of overwhelmingly
Black longshore
membership
men inMemphis
and other southern river ports. The inland boat workers
the poll tax and lynching and even expelled a member
for stirring
opposed
this period, however,
up racial prejudice. During
they did not attempt to
the racist hiring practices of the inland boat companies.81
The
change
NMU began to break down the racial division of labor on ocean vessels
during the war and in the Deep South on river vessels after the war, but this
activity came to a complete halt when anticommunists
gained control of the
NMU and purged the communists
in the late 1940s.82
ment,
Local
1199
a final case, consider the activities of New York Local 1199. During
anticommunist
purges, 1199 was expelled from the Retail, Wholesale,
As
the
and
22
ILWCH, 44, Fall 1993
an all
Store Union
Department
(RWDSU). At that time, it was mainly
white organization
of Jewish druggists in New York City under communist
to Honey,
1199 was the only labor organization
leadership. According
to SCLC and mobilized
besides the UPWA
that both gave money
itsmem
In
in
of
civil
the early 1960s, 1199's hun
support
rights.83
bership actively
dreds of members were a fixture at major civil rights rallies along the East
Coast.
the 1960s, this small union successfully organized
During
low-paid,
Black hospital workers in the New York City area, growing
overwhelmingly
into a union with tens of thousands of members. Without minimizing
the
and their wide range of commit
deficiencies
of certain left-led unions,
ments and activities,
it is clear, contrary to Hill's assertions,
that the racial
were
of
than those of the best
many
practices
decisively more egalitarian
nonleft CIO unions, which in turn were themselves different from some of
the
least-egalitarian
Structural
unions.84
Factors
can we reasonably conclude from this brief summary of certain as
Structural characteristics
of
CIO experience?
pects
play an important role
in laying the basis for interracial unionism. Low-skilled
work forces with
of
African-American
workers
high percentages
especially where
they
have crucial leverage within
the labor process - are more
likely to be
on an interracial basis into unions that have varying degrees of
organized
What
to racial egalitarianism. While
commitment
these structural features would
seem to be necessary
are some notable exceptions:
there
prerequisites,
work
white
forces
interracial
unions with strong com
largely
organized by
to racial equality. The NMU,
the
mitments
communist-led
Fur and
FE,
Leather Workers Union,
and the early 1199 are cases in point. However
it is absolutely
structural prerequisites
clear
may be generally,
necessary
the structural factors represent only
that they are never sufficient. Rather,
the greater degree of potential for racially egalitarian unions. Unions
such
as the Amalgamated
Association
of Iron and Steel Workers
and the SIU
SUP adopted openly racist stances, insuring their ultimate
failure.85 The
as
a
more
became
discrimina
ILGWU,
union,
starting
racially progressive
as
more
and
its
became
nonwhite
its
isolated
tory
membership
increasingly
control.86
white leaders strove to maintain
IWA
The
under
complete
right
wing leadership abandoned organizing the largely Black, low-paid southern
Other
woodworkers,
despite the potential
they showed for organization.
the
and
had
rhetori
unions, including
steelworkers,
organized
interracially
to civil rights yet still found ways to continue and even
cal commitments
the impor
discriminatory
practices. Thus, while acknowledging
deepen
tance of the racial and ethnic composition
of a work force, the skill level of
and the character of the labor process in
jobs, the nature of job hierarchies,
an industry, we must reject the thesis that these characteristics
determine
of a union.
the degree of racial egalitarianism
Race and the CIO
23
of
What
is that in a number of industries-because
is clear, however,
of
the numerical and strategic weight of the African-American
component
industrial organization was impossible unless it
the labor force-successful
was interracial and had at least an initial egalitarian stance. Ford could not
have been organized by the UAW without extensive efforts to appeal to the
Such a policy was also necessary
in steel. In
interests of Black workers.87
were
not
to
to
able
make
this
unions
where
CIO
appeal convincingly
places
a
was
to
union.
Black workers,
sometimes
failed
establish
Such
the
they
case in New Orleans
in 1937, when white organizers
from the left-wing
to the concerns of Black waterfront workers, were un
ILWU, insensitive
in competition with the AFL's ILA.88 Such was
able to win these workers
in the South in the post-World
also the case with a number of campaigns
War
II period.89
There is a good deal of evidence
that workers with special privileges,
more
in
and
skilled
these
jobs, tend to defend
especially
higher-paying
access
to
them
and
exclude
other
the
workers.
Where
by
privi
privileges
leges are in part or whole racially based, racial exclusion plays an important
role. One might begin looking at the history of American
craft unionism,
out
construc
African-American
workers
of
the
of
skilled
including
driving
tion trades and railroad jobs. One can also focus on the numerous
indus
trial settings, from the exclusion of card carrying African-American
miners
from union jobs in the northern fields by white union miners to the exclu
sion of Black workers
from docks in the Northwest
by ILWU longshore
men. One could note the perpetuation
of racial job hierarchies
in steel or
the World War II "hate strikes" in auto where white workers protested
the
to jobs to which they were enti
workers
upgrading of African-American
tled. As important as these antiegalitarian
activities were, they were only
such as the UPWA, Mine Mill, FTA, NMU,
part of the picture. Unions
in significant racially
FE, and even the UMWA,
among others, engaged
members.
egalitarian
struggles on behalf of their African-American
Even where
racial privileges
existed to significant degrees,
there al
ways was a tradeoff as to what could he achieved by white workers using
and what could be achieved by a broad,
exclusive
inclusive,
strategies
stance. The existence of a racial division of labor in industrial
solidaristic
settings was rarely a result primarily of the activities of white workers and
their unions.90 The system of white supremacy was designed and enforced
to serve other interests for which the wages and working conditions of even
the most privileged white workers were not the highest priority. Thus,
in
the late 1960s and 1970s, when large employers decided to break the power
of the construction
unions via the Business Roundtable
the
organization,
was little help.91 For many white
of the employees
whiteness
industrial
the benefits of successful solidarity, even on a day-to-day
workers,
level,
often outweighed
the benefits of racial exclusion and division.
In the long
was a losing strategy for almost all workers. These
run, antiegalitarianism
factors meant
that for most white workers,
racial attitudes
contradictory
24
ILWCH, 44, Fall 1993
and stances toward solidarity and racially egalitarian unions were variables,
not pregiven,
immutable constants. Under
certain sets of circumstances,
these attitudes had a high degree of variance.
There
that solidaristic
interracial struggle helped
is much evidence
workers
and at times led them to
attitudes
white
racist
among
mitigate
even
of
battles
African-American
and
the
workers
for equal
support
join
as
in
steel
accounts
of
much.
suggest
early organizing
Cayton and
ity.Many
assert: "One of the most striking phases of the entire SWOC's [sic]
campaign was the extent to which the union had been able to modify racial
prejudice within the ranks of white laborers."92 Many observers give anec
as well as personal
dotes and general descriptions,
testimonies
from white
to support such claims. There were also numerous
workers
themselves,
cases in which white workers
concerns of
reacted against the egalitarian
to the antidiscriminatory
often in opposition
their fellow Black workers,
stances of their union leadership. Examples
abound in almost every union.
account of the Mobile
Bruce Nelson's
shipyards during World War II sug
in gaining minimal equity for Black workers
in
gests some of the difficulties
in the Fort Worth meat
Even
the face of white worker
intransigence.93
the UPWA often was forced to move slowly and in a round
packinghouses,
Mitchell
fashion because of the resistance of many white workers.94
white workers were more likely to support the demands of
Although
Black workers when they fit in with broadly accepted job rights and union
in which white workers would be fully sup
the circumstances
principles,
portive and those in which they would break ranks were not always easily
in advance. Dramatic
predictable
changes and reverses often took place.
in places where
there previously
had
sometimes was achieved
Solidarity
been anti-Black riots; such was the case inNew Orleans after the race riots
of 1893, in a number of coal fields,95 and in Chicago after the 1919 riots.
about
the changes took place abruptly when white and Black workers
struggled together or when impressive Black orators spoke to white audi
ences. It is also clear that those unions that were most successful
in con
in principle to
verting white workers had interracial leaderships committed
full equality for Black workers.
The limits to egalitarian unionism and to full solidarity of white work
ers with Blacks are inmany cases clear from the historical record. While
it
seem at first glance that egalitarian unionism was more easily ap
would
of the
in those unions where Blacks were a substantial percentage
proached
in
coal
and
the
work force (e.g.,
metal mining
South) and had clear le
in
there are industries with
verage in the work process (as
meatpacking),
of
African-American
workers
where whites opposed
the
high percentages
demands of Blacks to the detriment of their unions and other
elementary
such industries where organizing never took place. Solidarity was harder to
Sometimes
achieve during periods of social conflict and racial competition
(as inMo
bile during World War II), and during periods of intense anticommunism
era). It was perhaps
(during the 1939-41 period, and during the McCarthy
Race and the CIO
25
in places like Memphis
easier to achieve during World War II (especially
when
the
racist
of local authorities
and Gadston,
Alabama)
antagonism
was held in check by antifascist
and
federal
ideology
fair-practice commit
contracts. But even these factors were not
ments enforced by government
always decisive.
interracialism was a purely opportunistic
Herbert Hill's model-that
to
at
defend
the privileges of white workers-seems
better
strategy, designed
to certain unions. But the racial practices of even
first glance applicable
so we can understand why they
these unions must be looked at historically
the way they did. From organizations
with various degrees of
developed
to egalitarian unionism,
the UAW and the UMWA
commitment
evolved
into unions
that tacitly accepted discriminatory
that
hurt
their
practices
The steelworkers
Black members.
accepted discriminatory
practices, partic
ularly in terms of white access to better job lines, by failing to attain broad
these unions were under right
seniority rights for all workers. Significantly,
con
with
unions
CIO
wing
leadership. Left-wing
large African-American
from
stituencies and more extensive minority
behaved
leadership
differently
those with more conservative
leaders. Thus, Hill's model seems ill-suited to
describe the practice and evolution of the FTA, Mine Mill, and the UPWA.
A number of left-led unions with largely white memberships,
including the
not only were
NMU,
FE, 1199, and the Fur and Leather Workers Union,
in
decisively different from nonleft white unions but were more egalitarian
many ways than even those nonleft unions with substantial minority mem
it refuses to accept the important differences
that alterna
berships. Because
tive leadership groups made on various union racial policies and because it
does not examine their historical development,
Hill's model ultimately fails
to give us a comprehensive
of the racial dynamics of even the
understanding
most inegalitarian
industrial unions.
The role of leadership
The strongest proponents
of and the motor force for egalitarian unionism
were organized African-American
Yet a large percentage
workers.
of
to create
Black workers
in a union was almost never sufficient, particularly
In general, as the cases we have
solidaristic attitudes by white workers.
so far suggest,
it was left-led unions, usually with integrated
examined
for the development
that proved a necessary
of
leaderships,
ingredient
and egalitarian
interracial
unionism.
unions,
orga
solidarity
Left-wing
and cadre in general were more committed
in principle
nizers, officials,
and practice to racial egalitarianism
than nonleftists.
The first reason for this had to do with principles. Leftists
in general
were committed
to solidaristic organizing. They tended to believe that only
such a movement
would
lead to socialism and radical social change. Thus,
leftists usually favored the broadest
like departmental
seniority
ceptions
forms of job rights, since narrow con
invariably proved divisive. They tend
ILWCH, 44, Fall 1993
26
ed to think that this solidarity also required identification with and support
at home and abroad.
for the most oppressed
segments of the population,
were
and other minorities
included in this latter
African Americans
clearly
saw
as central to
in
the
Question"
Communists,
addition,
category.
"Negro
were more poten
States: African Americans
their strategy in the United
than other segments of the population;
the struggle for
tially revolutionary
for
civil rights had a revolutionary
the
whole popula
galvanizing potential
for this struggle was the key to their
tion; the support of white workers
in general showed
of class consciousness.96
Thus, communists
development
more
workers
there
interest in organizing African-American
(although
as their efforts in
as the UE and ILWU demonstrate),
were exceptions,
metal
coal,
mining,
steel,
tobacco,
auto,
farm
and
construction
equipment,
industries suggest. They tended to have and to promote more
and the general
of
involvement
extensive Black
organizers,
leadership,
than did nonleft
nonwhite workers,
leaders, even in unions like Fur and
of African
Leather and the NMU, where there were not large percentages
and other
American
workers.
to bureaucratic
leaders tended to be far more committed
Conservative
than to antiracism. Left unions thus tended to
control and anticommunism
in situations where conservatives
balked. As in
push egalitarian measures
successful attempts at fighting
leftists often widely publicized
the NMU,
should be actively educated
and believed
that membership
discrimination
of their antiracist stance, left leaderships
and won to antiracism. Because
Black than were nonleft leader
and organizers were more proportionately
support of Black
ships. In most unions they also had the disproportionate
in industrial unions in
members.
Thus, in the struggle against communists
leaders usually relied upon the more privileged,
the late 1940s, nonleft
mostly white,
case not only
also
in steel,
often racist segments of the unions. This proved to be the
in the struggle against Mine Mill, FTA, and the NMU,
but
rubber,
and
auto.
in
of course, often were constrained
Leaders,
by their constituencies
terms of what they could advocate. Racially
conservative
white
leaders
were forced by African-American
into egalitarian
workers
occasionally
activity. Leftists often were inhibited by racially conservative white work
this even
Yet leaders also made decisive
in the UPWA.
happened
choices, including the degree to which they wanted to "crusade on the race
con
issue" in order to organize, develop, and empower African-American
a
force for racial egalitarianism
in their own
stituencies
that would become
a
of
choices that distinguished many
right. There were, in short, wide range
left unions and factions from nonleftists.
unions and conservative
Conservative-led
invariably were
leadership
task
of
to the
racial egalitarianism
because of their
developing
inadequate
relative to a series of other, but ultimately
attitudes and commitments
In most instances, the forging of strong interracial bonds
related questions.
was accomplished
Black and white workers
via shop struggles. Where
ers;
Race and the CIO
27
white workers were more
struggled
together over common
grievances,
not
to
the
value
of
their
Black compatriots
but to
likely
merely
appreciate
to
in
active
the
forms
and
of
with
them
instances
join
myriad
opposition
to
tended
be
racial discrimination.
the
province
Frequent shopfloor activity
of the left for various reasons. Conservative
leaders preferred
stable, top
control.97 They also pre
democratic
down organization which discouraged
ferred closer cooperative
relations with companies.
Left unions, which
of workers
in the organization
for broad class goals, were more
believed
to the mobilization
and involvement
of workers
in day
highly committed
saw
as
The
and
the
UPWA
NMU
actions
job
to-day struggles.
frequent
as
for
did
their
the
and
the
UAW
FE,
organizations,
maintaining
important
of the Reuther
before the ascendancy
job actions and
leadership. While
union democracy did not insure interracial solidarity (sometimes
they have
a
been the province of racist unions),
necessary
they provided
ingredient.
When Phillip Murray decided that racism had gone too far in locals in the
he ordered
the removal of all Jim
southern district of the steelworkers,
Crow signs without attempting to organize and educate white steelworkers.
to his surprise, his initiative drew resistance
and had to be with
Much
drawn.98
to egalitarian
inclination; by lesser commitment
Thus, by bureaucratic
lack of
stances; by their consequent
principles;
by their anticommunist
and by building
their strongest bases of
support among Black workers;
in
support among the whiter, most conservative, more privileged elements
their unions and industries, nonleft unions and leaderships were almost
to abandon the struggle for racial equality and to become part
preordained
of the problem rather than part of the solution. In contrast, the left unions,
and FE, tended to be more
particularly UPWA, Mine Mill, FTA, NMU,
inclusive and egalitarian, providing the seeds both for interracial solidarity
and civil rights struggles.
Conclusion
of broad, interracial working-class
The development
support for egalitari
an demands might have substantially
the politics of the United
transformed
States and made
of those demands more
the achievement
likely. There
were the beginnings of such a movement
in the 1930s and 1940s among the
UMWA
and certain left unions in the CIO. These beginnings were rightly,
touted by scholars, civil rights activists
although perhaps overoptimistically,
and organizations,
and Black newspapers
of
during this period, many
in the past. The
whom had been highly critical of interracial unionism
history of the CIO during the 1930s and 1940s suggests that the achieve
ment of interracial working-class
in
solidarity and racial egalitarianism
unions
is a difficult
task. The crushing of left-wing unionism,
however,
existed for racially egalitarian unionism;
destroyed whatever
possibilities
the CIO in a bureaucratic,
conservative mold; and laid the basis
congealed
28 ILWCH, 44, Fall 1993
for the long, continuous
ues to this day.
decline
inAmerican
union
strength which
contin
NOTES
1. Despite
often copious and informative material, Walter Galenson
(The CIO Challenge
to the AFL: A History
Labor Movement,
1935-1941
Mass.,
of the American
[Cambridge,
Walsh
Industrial
Unionism
in Action
I960]) and Raymond
(C.I.O.:
[New York,
1937]), for
are most notable
for the absence of any discussions
of racial discrimination.
Sumner
example,
seems to feel that all unions
those in the AFL) were making
Slichter
and
(including
"progress"
the influence of the national
that "in nearly all instances
officers of unions
is thrown against
to Herbert
R. Northrup,
discrimination."
Introduction
Labor and the Negro
Organized
(New
to the facts, they should not
such assessments
do great violence
York,
1944), xii. Though
racial issues were and are
notes, "although
surprise us, since, as Herbert Hill quite accurately
a crucial factor in American
labor history,
were either
racist practices
of labor organizations
or justified
rationalizations
in most
of the important
studies of that
ignored
by dubious
in those works based in concept on the Commons-Taft
tradition."
"Black
history, particularly
and Affirmative
An Historical
Action:
in The Question
Perspective,"
of Discrimina
Jr. (Middletown,
and William
Shulman
tion, ed. Steven
Conn.,
Darity,
1989), 216. In this
it is worth noting the deep racism of many
industrial relations practitioners
trained by
context,
this school,
who was to become
head of the National
Labor
Leiserson,
especially William
Relations
Board
and later head of the Industrial Relations
Research
Association.
(NLRB)
Labor
58-59.
Northrup,
2. See W. E.
B. Du Bois and Augustus
G. Dill,
American
Artisan
eds., The Negro
in the United States, 1850-1925
(Atlanta,
1912); Charles H. Wesley, Negro Labor
(New York,
J. Greene
and Carter G. Woodson,
The Negro Wage Earner
1927); and Lorenzo
(Washington,
see also F. E. Wolfe, Admission
to American
Trade Unions
D.C.,
1930). For further specifics,
Ira De A. Reid, Negro Membership
inAmerican
Labor Unions
(Baltimore,
1912) pp. 112-34;
Labor and the Negro.
(New York,
Organized
1930); and Northrup,
3. Sterling D. Spero and Abram
L. Harris,
The Black Worker
(New York,
1931).
4. W. E. B. Du Bois,
in the United
"Race Relations
IX
States,
1917-1947,"
Phylon
(Third Quarter
1948):234-47.
5. See Horace
R. Cayton
and George
S. Mitchell,
Black Workers
and the New Unions
Labor and the Negro;
and especially Robert C.
Organized
(Westport, Conn.,
1939); Northrup,
In fact, one could compile a very thick book of
Weaver, Negro Labor
(New York, 1946), 219-20.
from the African-American
and scholars,
press, civil rights activists,
optimistic
predictions
the late 1940s.
especially
during
6. Spero and Harris,
The Black Worker,
G. Gutman,
"The Negro
and the
347; Herbert
and Letters
United Mine Workers
of America.
The Career
L. Davis
of Richard
and Some
in The Negro
and the American
Labor Movement,
ed.
1890-1900,"
thing of Their Meaning:
Julius
Jacobson
(Garden City, N.Y.,
1968).
7. Hill,
see
and Affirmative
For similar arguments,
"Black Labor
245-48.
Action,"
J. Norrell,
Robert
"Caste in Steel: Jim Crow Careers
in Birmingham,
Journal of
Alabama,"
American
73 (1986);
and Union
in
Politics
idem, "Labor Trouble:
History
George Wallace
in Organized
in the Twentieth Century South, ed. Robert H. Zieger
Labor
Alabama,"
(Knox
"A Sisyphean
Labor Educators,
Ordeal:
Race Relations
and
ville, 1991); and Alan Draper,
Southern Workers,
Labor Studies Journal
16 (Winter
1956-1966,"
Hill, who
1991). Unlike
and Norrell
indicts both white workers
and union leaders, both Draper
put their main empha
sis on the former.
see Michael
to this literature,
8. For references
and Politics
in
Goldfield,
"Class, Race,
in Political
12 (1990): 89, 120.
the United
States," Research
Economy
9. Northrup,
Labor and the Negro,
1.
Organized
A. McLaurin,
10. Melton
The Knights
in the South
Conn.,
of Labor
(Westport,
1978).
in Richmond,
11. Peter Rachleff,
Black Labor
1865-1890
and Chicago,
(Urbana
1989).
12. McLaurin,
in the South, 82-84.
Knights
of Labor
13. David
New Orleans,
"Black and White Workers:
P. Bennetts,
1880-1900"
(Ph.D.
of Illinois,
New Orleans
Dockworkers:
diss., University
Race,
1972); Daniel
Rosenberg,
Race and the CIO
29
and Unionism,
1892-1923
Labor,
1988); Eric Arnesen,
Waterfront
(Albany, N.Y.,
New Orleans:
1863-1923
Race, Class and Politics,
(New York,
1991).
14. See James R. Green,
of Timberworkers,
"The Brotherhood
1910-1913:
to Industrial Capitalism
in the Southern U.S.A.,"
Past and Present 60
Response
We Shall Be All (New York,
and Philip S.
200; Melvyn
Dubofsky,
1969), 209-20;
Workers
of
A Radical
(1973):161
Foner, The
1905-1917
Industrial Workers
(New York,
1965), 233-57.
of the World,
even suggests
was possible
such organization
15. Dubofsky
that much more
for those
to try. We Shall Be All, 209.
who were audacious
enough
for an informed discussion.
16. See Spero and Harris,
The Black Worker,
17. As Ronald
Lewis's
work points out, the composition
and racial dy
comprehensive
coal fields of Pennsylvania,
namics of the overwhelmingly
white
and Indiana
Illinois, Ohio,
were quite different
coal areas of Alabama
from those of the majority
Black
and from the
more
diverse
fields of Appalachia-especially
southwest West Virginia
racially and ethnically
to race difficult
for the union and industry as a whole.
with respect
making
generalizations
of highly informative
There are literally hundreds
books and articles on mineworker
unionism
and on the coal industry. Ronald
L. Lewis, Black Coal Miners
in America:
and
Race, Class,
see Gut
1780-1980
Community
Conflict,
Ky.: 1987). For recent controversies,
(Lexington,
"The Negro
and the UMW";
"The Career of Richard Davis Reconsid
man,
Stephen Brier,
from the National
ered: Unpublished
21
Labor
Labor History
Tribune,"
Correspondence
as Labor History:
Herbert
Gutman
and the
Hill,
(Summer
"Myth-Making
1980); Herbert
Mine Workers
International
of America,"
Journal of Politics,
and Society 2
Culture,
to Hill
the rejoinders
idem, "Black Labor and Affirmative
Action";
(Winter
1988): 132-200;
in The International
and Society 2 (Spring 1989). Joe W. Trotter,
Journal of Politics,
Culture,
in Southern West Virginia,
1915-32
Blacks
Class and Color:
Jr., Coal,
(Chicago,
1990);
in the Coal Fields: The Southern West Virginia
David A. Corbin,
and Rebellion
Life, Work,
and
and
Judith Stein,
in
1880-1922
"Southern Workers
Miners,
Chicago,
(Urbana
1981);
in Zieger,
in the Twentieth
International
Labor
Unions,
1936-1951,"
Organized
Century
The Black Worker; Cay ton and Mitchell,
Black Workers;
South; Spero and Harris,
Philip Taft,
in the Industrial Era (Westport,
Workers
Dixie: Alabama
Conn.:
Organizing
1981); and the
in coal by Paul Nyden,
in the United
Black Coal Miners
work on Black workers
pathbreaking
For an insightful
States (New York,
informative.
review critical of recent
1974) are all highly
see Stein. For extensive
work
and Corbin,
references
and an overview,
by both Trotter
see Melvyn
and Warren Van Tine,
about the career of John L. Lewis,
especially
Dubofsky
United
John L. Lewis
1977).
(New York,
to Strike - An
18. Clark Kerr and Abraham
"The Interindustry
Siegel,
Propensity
in Industrial Conflict,
et al. (New York,
International
ed. Arthur Kornhauser,
Comparison,"
1954), 189-212.
was
19. The UMWA
in 1890 as a result of a merger
founded
of Knights
of Labor
National
135 and the National
Federation
of Miners
and Mine Laborers.
the
From
Assembly
to racial egalitarianism.
it was explicitly
committed
See Lewis, Black Coal Miners,
beginning
The Black Worker,
355.
137; Spero and Harris,
20. Stanely B. Greenberg,
Race and State in Capitalist Development
(New Haven,
1980),
294.
21. Cayton
and Mitchell,
Black Workers,
Black Coal Miners,
323; Lewis,
46, 54-55;
F. Ray Marshall,
The Negro
and Organized
Labor
(New York,
1965), 97,
22. Nyden,
Black Coal Miners,
The Black Worker,
355-56.
2; Spero and Harris,
23. Lewis, Black Coal Miners,
63.
24. Ibid., 47; Spero and Harris,
The Black Worker,
Labor and
371; Northrup,
Organized
the Negro,
165.
25. Lewis,
Black Coal Miners,
64. Further
evidence
is presented
in the testimonies
of
Black miners
and Mitchell,
Black Workers,
201; and Spero and Harris,
surveyed by Cayton
375-76.
26. Lewis,
376.
49, 94, 104, 164; Spero and Harris,
as Labor History."
27. See especially Hill,
"Myth-making
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
Black Coal Miners,
Nyden,
The Black
Spero and Harris,
in Spero and Harris,
Quoted
Lewis, Black Coal Miners,
Ibid., 117-18.
Black Coal Miners,
Nyden,
Black Coal Miners,
23-28; Lewis,
101-06.
Worker,
361; Lewis,
361.
106.
10, 17-19;
Northrup,
Organized
81, 86.
Labor
and
the Negro,
30 ILWCH, 44, Fall 1993
et al., Negro
171; Northrup,
Employment
170-76.
Black Coal Miners,
37; Lewis,
19.
34. Nyden,
the extremely
35. Note,
for example,
224.
Black Workers,
in Southern
positive
Industry
(Philadelphia,
evaluation
early
by Cayton
1970),
15, 33,
and Mitchell,
36. Ibid., 205.
A
in Steeltown,
"The Littlest
New Deal:
SWOC Takes Power
37. Eric Leif Davin,
in the Late 1930s" (unpublished
of Radicalism
paper,
1989), 30-31.
Possibility
to racial
of the union and its commitment
of the progress
evaluations
38. For opposite
and
"Labor Trouble";
in Birmingham
during the 1940s and 1950s, see Norrell,
egalitarianism
in International
Unions."
"Southern Workers
Stein,
Local 6 president
39. In the 1970s the proadministration
put out a racist leaflet in the
some African-American
from the watermelon
local union officials
"fugitives
plant,
calling
and
but large numbers
of Hispanic
the over 1,000 Black workers,
patch,"
enraging not merely
as well. When
filed charges for
the local Fair Practices Committee
white workers
unanimously
a union meeting
over 500 workers
his
attended
the local president's
demanding
impeachment,
and
4 UAW
that rose to the president's
defense
office
it was the Region
removal;
(leaflets
that
This was the same regional
from Local 6 in author's possession).
material
leadership
Push in Chicago.
with Jesse Jackson and Operation
marched
in State and Nation
40. V. O. Key, Jr., Southern Politics
(New York,
1949); W. E. B. Du
Race and State in Capitalist Devel
Bois, Black Reconstruction
1935); Greenberg,
(New York,
Jack M. Bloom,
Class, Race, and the Civil Rights Movement
1987);
opment;
(Bloomington,
The Semisovereign
and E. E. Schattschneider,
People
(New York,
1960).
in Alabama:
"Iron Ore Miners
and Mine Mill
1933-1952"
41. Horace
(Ph.D.
Huntley,
of Pittsburgh,
diss., University
1977), 20-26.
the Great
Communists
and Hoe: Alabama
42. Robin D. G. Kelley, Hammer
During
1990), 66, 145.
Depression
(Chapel Hill,
Ibid., 147, 151.
to note in this context
that Mine Mill's
record with regard
Ibid., 145. It is important
was equally egalitarian,
that it had
the difficulties
to Chicano workers
in the Southwest
despite
Chicano Workers
and the Politics
there. See Cletus Daniel,
in facing recalcitrant
of
employers
43.
44.
Fairness
1992).
(Austin,
in Alabama,"
and Mine Mill
215-218.
"Iron Ore Miners
45. Huntley,
in 1941 at the Wenonah
46. The new hiring policy was "the subject of a heated debate"
the concerns
of other Black
local. The
issue was raised by a rank and filer, who expressed
that the
that so few Blacks were being hired. One proposal was that the union demand
miners
of the local
of Blacks
The Black vice president
and whites.
hire equal numbers
company
newcomers
to the pleasure
of the white
and the chagrin of
this suggestion,
much
opposed
was subsequently
to
voted out of office,
the vice president
Black miners. Although
attempts
to change
failed. Ibid., 96-98.
its hiring policies
the company
47. Ibid., 110, 162, 189.
48. Ibid., 208-09.
in the South with the Food,
"Black and White
49. Karl Korstad,
Organizing
Together:
in The CIO's Left
Union
& Allied Workers
1942-1952,"
Tobacco,
(FTA-CIO),
Agricultural
"Labor
Led Unions,
ed. Steve Rosswurm
N.J.,
Honey,
1992), 76; Michael
(New Brunswick,
in Mem
and Black Workers
in the South: The Industrial Labor Movement
and Civil Rights
Illinois University,
1988).
phis, 1929-1945"
(Ph.D. diss., Northern
get
50. Korstad,
51. Robert
Winston-Salem,
1987), xvii, 5.
52. Herbert
nal of Economics
86.
R. Korstad,
North
Carolina,
R. Northrup,
56 (August
616-17.
of
"Daybreak
1943-1950"
"The Tobacco
(Ph.D.
Workers
Tobacco
diss.,
Workers
and
of North
University
International
Union,"
the CIO,
Carolina,
Quarterly
Jour
1942):606.
53. Ibid.,
of Freedom,"
54. Korstad,
"Daybreak
55. Ibid., 219-30.
56. Ibid., 230.
"Labor and Civil Rights
57. Honey,
Director
Allan
letter to CIO Organization
379.
Freedom:
201-02,
208.
in the South,"
S. Haywood,
261, 379; Lucy Randolph
October
5, 1940, quoted
Mason
in ibid.,
Race and the CIO
31
Dixie papers, Duke University
"Black and White
76; Operation
Together,"
1945-1950,
Archives,
passim.
in the South,"
"Labor and Civil Rights
500.
59. Honey,
60. Ibid., 527-30.
in the South (Cambridge,
61. Ray F. Marshall,
Labor
Mass.,
1967), 172.
see Robert
Korstad
and Nelson
62. For a parallel
Lichtenstein,
argument,
"Oppor
and the Early Civil Rights Movement,"
tunities Found and Lost: Labor, Radicals,
Journal of
American
75 (December
History
1988).
A Study of Unionization
63. David
The Butcher Workman:
Mass.,
Brody,
(Cambridge,
Unite
and Fight': Race
and Labor
inMeat
"'Black and White
1964), 88; Eric B. Halpern,
of Pennsylvania,
1904-1948"
packing,
1989), 257.
(Ph.D. diss., University
58. Korstad,
Labor
64. Brody,
176.
65. Rick Halpern,
Fort Worth's
Unionism
in the Southwest:
"Interracial
Packinghouse
in the Twentieth Century South, 163; Roger
in Zieger, Organized
Labor
1937-1954,"
of Industrial Unionism
in Meatpacking,
"The Path Not Taken: A Social History
Horowitz,
of Wisconsin,
1920-1960"
(Ph.D. diss., University
1990), 440-48.
66. Leroi Jones, Blues People
this point compellingly
(New York,
1963), 96, 106, makes
in the 1920s, allowing
in his discussion
of the wider social space in Chicago
for the flourishing
Workers,
of
jazz there.
67. Halpern,
and Fight,"
338.
"Black and White Unite
365.
68. Brody, Butcher Workman,
176; Halpern,
69. Halpern,
383.
176.
70. Brody, Butcher Workman,
and Fight,"
71. Halpern,
"Black and White
Unite
509, 507, 534.
642.
72. Horowitz,
"The Path Not Taken,"
and the
73. Michael
"Coalition
and Conflict: Martin
Luther King, Civil Rights,
Honey,
American
Labor Movement"
manuscript,
1992).
(unpublished
in the Southwest,"
74. Halpern,
"Interracial Unionism
158-59.
75. Hill,
245.
"Black Labor and Affirmative
Action,"
to
the 1940s the ILWU was insensitive
76. Nancy Quam-Wickham
that during
argues
the ideological
commitments
of the union's
leaders. Eventually,
but much
racial issues despite
in a more
in part because
the union evolved
of
later, she argues,
direction,
racially egalitarian
"Who Controls
the Hiring Hall? The Struggle
for Job Control
in
the stance of the leadership.
the ILWU During World War II," in Rosswurm,
CIO's Left-Led
Unions.
77. Donald
T. Critchlow,
Unions
and Racism: A Comparative
"Communist
Study of the
of the United
and Machine Workers
Electrical
Radio
and the National
Maritime
Responses
to the Black Question
17 (Spring
Union
During World War II," Labor History
1976):237;
Labor
Robert
C. Weaver,
Negro
1946), 221.
(New York,
A History
at General
Workers:
78. Ronald W. Schatz, The Electrical
Electric
of Labor
and Westinghouse,
1923-60
1983), 127-31.
(Chicago,
79. Mark McCulloch,
"The Shop-Floor
Dimension
of Union Rivalry:
The Case of West
in the 1950s,"
in Rosswurm,
CIO's Left-Led
193-99.
Unions,
inghouse
80. Critchlow,
and Racism,"
"Communist
Unions
238.
"Labor and Civil Rights
in the South,"
81. Honey,
254, 292, et passim.
82. Ibid., 343.
and Conflict."
83. Honey,
"Coalition
is supported
84. Such an assessment
observers.
For example,
by virtually all fair-minded
of communists
who believed
that the expulsion
and left-led unions was extremely
Ray Marshall,
for the CIO, still acknowledged
that the Communist
force for
positive
party was an important
racial equality
in the South,
and Organized
in the CIO. Labor
350; Negro
Labor,
36, 46.
and Mitchell,
85. Cayton
Black Workers,
81.
in the New York City Garment
86. Robert
"Racial Conflict
1933
Laurentz,
Industry,
of New York at Binghamton,
in
1980" (Ph.D. diss., State University
1980). Northrup,
writing
as one of the most racially egalitarian
of unions. Organized
Labor and
1944, cites the ILGWU
as
the Negro,
their degeneration
into narrow bigotry.
128. Hill documents
"Myth-Making
Labor
History."
87. August
Black Detroit
Meier
and Elliott Rudwick,
and the Rise of the UAW
(New
1979).
in the Crescent
88. Bruce Nelson,
"Class and Race
City: The ILWU, from San Francisco
to New Orleans,"
in Rosswurm,
CIO's Left-Led
in the South,
Labor
210.
Unions; Marshall,
York,
32ILWCH, 44, Fall 1993
89. As
largely
Gavin
peripheral
181.
notes with
to patterns
of discrimination,
"were
unions
Wright
respect
to the industrial
story in the South." Old South, New South
(New York,
1986),
in the South,
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