Black Labor and the American Legal System


Book Description

Covering the period from the abolition of slavery through the events that preceded and affected the adoption of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Black Labor and the American Legal System examines the major legislative and legal developments relating to the employment discrimination. The historical consequences of the racial practices of employers and organized labor, as well as of the federal government, are analyzed within the context of law and social change. The evolution of federal labor policy is traced through key decisions of the National Labor Relations Board and the courts as they have interpreted the application of labor law to racial discrimination.




The Fifth Freedom


Book Description

Broadly interdisciplinary, 'The Fifth Freedom' sheds new light on the role of parties, elites, and institutions in the policymaking process; the impact of racial politics on electoral realignment; the history of civil rights; the decline of New Deal liberalism; and the rise of the New Right.







Down on the Killing Floor


Book Description

This detailed study of the relationship between race relations and unionization in Chicago's meatpacking industry draws on traditional primary and secondary materials and on an extensive set of interviews conducted in the mid-1980s that explore subjective dimensions of the workers' experience. "An ideal case study to analyze one of the central problems in American labor history--the relation ship between racial identity and working class formation and organization." -- James R. Barrett, author of Work and Community in the Jungle: Chicago's Packinghouse Workers, 1894-1922 "Meticulously researched, grounded firmly in extensive oral history and archival sources, and carefully argued, Down on the Killing Floor will be indispensable reading for everyone interested in race and labor." -- Eric Arnesen, author of Waterfront Workers of New Orleans: Race, Class and Politics, 1863-1923 A volume in the series The Working Class in American History, edited by David Brody, Alice Kessler-Harris, David Montgomery, and Sean Wilentz