Black Upsurge in the Unions

Black union activity is on the Increase. Blacks are organizing new locals among hospital workers, municipal employees, and in the retail and service trades. Black caucuses form at union conventions, and there are national black caucuses within the United Auto Workers, the United Steelworkers, and the American Federation of Teachers, and black rank-and-file rebellions have erupted in the New York and Chicago transit unions. Black pride provides the thrust for black representation within the labor movement as it does in all our institutions.

This thrust gains a lift from a continuing ground swell of black employment in unionized industries and industries ripe for unionization. The number of black workers with seniority and trade union experience has grown, and blacks are no longer automatically last hired and first fired. In 1954, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, out of a total nonwhite work force of 6.3 million, there were 316,000 craftsmen, foremen, and kindred wo...