Southern Black Labor

Michael Honey's account of union growth and decline in Memphis, from the Great Depression to the cold war, is an overall history of this movement for labor and black civil rights in one Southern city. Honey follows the idea all the way from southern segregation in the 1930’s, all the way through the communist scares of the fifty’s and into the civil rights movements of the sixty’s.
Edward H. Crump's was the leader of a political machine, which ruled Memphis during this entire period. The political machine had such a strong hold on Memphis, no one even dared to berate it publicly. Early in his career, Crump made peace with skilled craft unions in the AFL that represented white males. This further complicated the unionization of blacks. The workers of Memphis often reacted violently to the organizing of black unskilled workers.
Blacks were finally able to escape the oppression of white workers during World War II. Federal war contracts and the War Labor Board had many blacks joi...