The Human Rights and Diversity Committee, in conjunction with The Teamsters History Project, proudly presents the first in a new series of programs based on multicultural history.
"The Unfinished Revolution - African American Workers and the American Labor Movement Since the Civil War."
The history of the American labor movement is often portrayed as a history of white labor whose track record on matters of racial equality left a lot to be desired. Racial exclusion was a very real part of that record. But, the labor movement itself was never the property of white workers alone.
From the era of Reconstruction onward, significant numbers of black men and women forged their own traditions of labor activism, turning to unionization as a vehicle to the same goals as white workers - raising wages, shortening the working day, and improving on-the-job conditions. In important ways, black trade unions were civil rights organizations pursuing the quest for economic justice.
This talk will explore the often untold but vitally important history of the black labor tradition from the era of emancipation to the present.
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