That region’s cultural isolation from, but continuing political and economic influence on the rest of the country continues to this day. The story of race and labor in America starts with the treatment of black workers in the South. This kind of violence is easier for the slaver to rationalize if the enslaved is viewed as less than human. And progressive labor leaders like John Lewis and Walter Reuther knew the labor movement could not be whole without the participation of black workers.īoth union and civil rights activists understood that labor rights are human rights, and that to constrain a person’s liberty-to choose one’s work, to earn enough to support a family, to marry, to travel-is a deliberate act of coercion. saw unions as essential to the ability of black workers to rise and achieve equality. Progressive race leaders like Fredrick Douglass, W.E.B. Abolitionists, textile workers, train porters, Knights of Labor, tenant farmers, miners, auto workers and sanitation workers lived their commitment to racial equality and joined together to demand a better, more just America. Yet throughout our history, ordinary women and men fought and died for a racially inclusive vision of economic justice. The legacy of prejudice that was produced and reinforced by slavery and Jim Crow continues to shape American political institutions and thinking in profound ways. And after race-based slavery was finally outlawed, a new generation of political elites allowed a new race-based system of coerced labor to become law and remain in place for another hundred. 15, 2014, Missouri AFL-CIO ConventionĪmerica’s Declaration of Independence asserts that “all men are created equal” and “that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Yet our founding fathers, some of whom were slave-owners, incorporated slavery into our political institutions and defended it for almost a century. Every city, every state and every region of this country has its own deep history with racism. “Racism is part of our inheritance as Americans.
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