Results by title

A rising chorus of voices have called for redress and compensation to level the playing field for African Americans across all walks of life. A New History of Black Pittsburgh brings together humanities scholars, social service and social justice activists, and community residents to document multigenerational patterns of class and racial inequality and forge a comprehensive case for reparatory justice.

Focusing on industry’s “first city,” the authors draw on oral histories, archival research, and scholarship to examine more than two centuries of Pittsburgh’s history. By featuring a city home to professional Negro League baseball teams, jazz artists, the Pittsburgh Courier, and acclaimed writers and playwrights, the authors show that recognizing ongoing creativity and community-building activities is just as vital for the case for reparations as documenting persistent forms of inequality. A New History of Black Pittsburgh offers insights and policy recommendations to inspire activists, educators, historians, and policymakers working to repair the damage of racial inequality around the globe.

This collection brings together nearly three decades of research on the African American experience, class, and race relations in the Appalachian coal industry. It shows how, with deep roots in the antebellum era of chattel slavery, West Virginia’s Black working class gradually picked up steam during the emancipation years following the Civil War and dramatically expanded during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

From there, African American Workers and the Appalachian Coal Industry highlights the decline of the region’s Black industrial proletariat under the impact of rapid technological, social, and political changes following World War II. It underscores how all miners suffered unemployment and outmigration from the region as global transformations took their toll on the coal industry, but emphasizes the disproportionately painful impact of declining bituminous coal production on African American workers, their families, and their communities. Joe Trotter not only reiterates the contributions of proletarianization to our knowledge of US labor and working-class history but also draws attention to the gender limits of studies of Black life that focus on class formation, while calling for new transnational perspectives on the subject. Equally important, this volume illuminates the intellectual journey of a noted labor historian with deep family roots in the southern Appalachian coalfields.

For almost two decades, August Meier and Elliott Rudwick have roamed the frontier of Afro-American history, blazing trails that others have followed. This book forges a solid link between race and class conflict in the twentieth century.---Ira Berlin, The Nation"This fact-filled study is essential to students of the labor and civil rights movements."---David Kusnet, The New Republic"A fascinating slice of history illustrating important race and class issues that are still with us."---Library Journal"By ignoring the conventional lines between labor and black history, Meier and Rudwick have found an unexplored middle ground---the net of relations between the black community and white economic institutions---that shaped the working life of blacks in Detroit's auto plants. This is a major achievement."---David Brody, Professor Emeritus of History, University of California, Davis". . . an important work . . . one of the first to apply the nitty-gritty of social and institutional history to 20th century African American and labor history." ---Eric Arnesen, University of Illinois at ChicagoBlack Detroit and the Rise of the UAW is essential reading for historians of labor and race in America, as well those interested in Detroit's importance as a crucible for American urban history.