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The challenge of interracial unionism: Alabama coal miners, 1878-1921 PDF

654 Pages·1998·1.68 MB·English
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The Challenge of Interracial Unionism : title: Alabama Coal Miners, 1878-1921 author: Letwin, Daniel. publisher: University of North Carolina Press isbn10 | asin: 0807823775 print isbn13: 9780807823774 ebook isbn13: 9780807862872 language: English Coal miners--Labor unions--Alabama-- History, African American coal miners-- subject Alabama--History, African American labor union members--Alabama--History. publication date: 1998 lcc: HD6515.M615L478 1998eb ddc: 331.88/122334/09761 Coal miners--Labor unions--Alabama-- History, African American coal miners-- subject: Alabama--History, African American labor union members--Alabama--History. Page iii The Challenge of Interracial Unionism Alabama Coal Miners, 1878-1921 Daniel Letwin The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill and London Page iv © 1998 The University of North Carolina Press All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. This book was set in Monotype Bulmer by Keystone Typesetting, Inc. Book design by April Leidig-Higgins. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Letwin, Daniel. The challenge of interracial unionism: Alabama coal miners, 1878-1921/by Daniel Letwin. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-8078-2377-5 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN 0-8078-4678-3 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Trade-unions Coal miners Alabama History. 2. Afro-American coal miners Alabama History. 3. Trade-unions Afro-American membership Alabama History. I. Title. HD6515.M615L478 1998 97-9365 331.88'122334'09761 dc21 CIP Portions of this book originally appeared as "Interracial Unionism, Gender, and `Social Equality' in the Alabama Coalfields, 1878-1908," Journal of Southern History 61, no. 3 (August 1995): 519-54. 02 01 00 99 98 5 4 3 2 1 Page v To my parents, Leon and Alita, and to the memory of my grandmother Bessie Page vii Contents Preface ix Introduction 1 1 9 The Rise of the Birmingham District 2 31 The World of the Alabama Coal Miners 3 55 The Greenback-Labor Party and the Knights of Labor 4 89 The United Mine Workers in the Populist Era 5 125 The United Mine Workers in the Age of Segregation 6 157 The United Mine Workers in the World War I Era Epilogue 191 Notes 195 Selected Bibliography 257 Index 277 Page viii Maps 1. Birmingham Coal Belt 11 2. Birmingham Coal Mining District 33 Page ix Preface THIS BOOK EXPLORES a question that has long concerned social critics, and now a growing number of American historians as well: How have black and white workers negotiated the dual identities of race and class, in settings where both were charged with meaning? In the introduction I discuss the narrative and themes of the book. Here I want to convey how I came to study the coal miners of Alabama, and to acknowledge those who have helped me along the way. My interest in race and labor has deep roots. From my family I absorbed the trade union ethics of solidarity and social justice, values my father and mother had learned from their parents, Bessie and Lazar, Manya and Zell. I first become aware of a broader world amid the civil rights struggles Page x of the 1960s. Like many others of my generation, I began to ponder what gave race such meaning and urgency in America. Central to my emerging worldview were visions of a revitalized labor movement with the commitment and power to overcome racism a barrier that American unionism has at times transcended, but more often succumbed to or actively fortified. If these concerns germinated in my family, so did my sense that social issues were complex and not always susceptible to dogmatic formulations. My political sensibilities were shaped by ongoing, lively discussion with my parents, Alita and Leon, and my brothers, Michael and David. My parents and my grandmother Bessie the individuals to whom this book is dedicated encouraged intellectual curiosity and critical thinking, as qualities that both tempered and reinforced one's social commitment. My interest in issues of race and class deepened in college, where I encountered the dynamic scholarship then flowering in both labor and African American history. I arrived at graduate school undecided between these two fields. Eventually I came to see the dilemma as artificial. Blacks in the United States, after all, have in large part been workers (whether slaves, sharecroppers, or wage earners), and American working-class history has been profoundly affected by the presence of African Americans and by ideologies of race. For my dissertation topic I chose the Alabama coal fields during the rise of Jim Crow because it seemed a promising context in which to explore this relationship. My work on the dissertation was supported by an Albert J. Beveridge Grant from the American Historical Association, a John F. Enders Research Assistance Grant from the graduate school of Yale University, and two travel grants from the Yale history department. Most of the writing took place during two years I spent teaching at

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This study explores a tradition of interracial unionism that persisted in the coal fields of Alabama from the dawn of the New South through the turbulent era of World War I. Daniel Letwin focuses on the forces that prompted black and white miners to collaborate in the labor movement even as racial s
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