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Black
Freedom Fighters in Steel
The
Struggle For Democratic Unionism
By
Ruth Needleman
Thousands of African Americans poured into northwest Indiana in the 1920s
dreaming of decent-paying jobs and a life without Klansmen,
chain gangs, and cotton. Black Freedom Fighters in Steel: The
Struggle for Democratic Unionism by Ruth Needleman adds a
new dimension to the literature on race and labor. It tells the
story of five men born in the South who migrated north for a
chance to work the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs in the steel
mills. Individually they fought for equality and justice;
collectively they helped construct economic and union democracy
in postwar America.
George Kimbley, the oldest, grew up in Kentucky across the
street from the family who had owned his parents. He fought with
a French regiment in World War I and then settled in Gary,
Indiana, in 1920 to work in steel. He joined the
Steelworkers Organizing Committee and became the first African
American member of its full-time staff in 1938. The youngest,
Jonathan Comer, picked cotton on his father's land in Alabama,
stood up to racism in the military during World War II, and
became the first African American to be president of a basic
steel local union.
This is a book about the integration of unions, as well as about
five remarkable individuals. It focuses on the decisive role of
African American leaders in building interracial unionism, and
deals with the African American struggle for representation,
highlighting the importance of independent black organization
within the union.—Publisher
This remarkable
book reveals the hidden history of long-forgotten black
steelworkers and their seminal role in the struggle for union
democracy and workers' rights on the shop floor. Ruth
Needleman's book is a critical text in the history of black
industrial workers' struggles and their contributions to working
people regardless of where they may have toiled.—Studs Terkel
Black Freedom
Fighters in Steel is a beautiful story of five black union
organizers, long-distance runners who were indispensable to
building the steel workers union as well as the civil rights
movement in northwest Indiana. And they never stopped
struggling, despite having to battle generations of white racism
and intransigence in their own union. Ruth Needleman proves once
again that African American workers have consistently sustained
the most inclusive, radical vision of working class solidarity
the U.S. labor movement has ever known.—Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom
Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination (2002)
Inspiring and thought-provoking, Ruth Needleman's book
reveals an often overlooked segment of black working-class
history. This compelling analysis provides a foundation for
considering strategies of labor renewal and black worker power.—Bill Fletcher, Jr. President, TransAfrica Forum *
* * * *
Cornell.
University Press
305
pp.$47.50 cloth; $19.95, paper. www.cornellpress.cornell.edu
Contact: Jonathan Hall at 607.277.2338 x252 / jlh98@cornell.edu
/ Sage House, 512 East State
Street, Ithaca, New York 14850, Phone (607) 277-2338, Fax (607)
277-2374 Author:
Ruth
Needleman is Professor of Labor Studies at Indiana University
Northwest in Gary, where she created a special college degree program,
known as Swingshift College, for steelworkers. * *
* * * Ruth Needleman, professor of Labor
Studies at Indiana University since 1981, has been engaged in
labor and civil rights struggles for decades. Beginning in 1969
Ruth taught Latin American literature and studies at University
of California, Santa Cruz. In the early seventies, she left UC
to work for the United Farmworkers Union, writing and
distributing their bimonthly newspaper El Malcriado. She
co-authored the book Los gremios nacionales, which deals
with the right-wing counter-revolutionary strikes in Chile, and
published by Allende's Quimantu. She also organized as a rank
and file Teamster in a New York plastics sweatshop and later at
UPS in Detroit. For two years (1990-92) Ruth served as
education director for SEIU. In 1993, back in Gary, she founded
Swingshift College, a customized college degree program for
workers. She has collaborated with the Steelworkers since 1981,
teaching district and international programs, including their
4-year leadership program. Her publications address issues of
race, class and gender, from her articles/chapters on leadership
development, coalition-building, and women and unions, to
articles on the importance of caucuses and independent
organization within unions. Her recently published book is Black
Freedom Fighters in Steel: The Struggle for Democratic Unionism.
She is beginning a project on race relations and
strategies for solidarity among working women.
For
interviews, please contact Professor Needleman at 219.980.6835
or via email at rneedle@iun.edu.
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updated 12 April
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