Black Workers Remember: An Oral History of Segregation, Unionism, and the Freedom Struggle (Paperback)

Synopsis and Acknowledgments
Preface: Black History as Labor History
Introduction: The Power of Remembering 

1 Segregation, Racial Violence, and Black Workers 
Fannie Henderson Witnesses Southern Lynch Law 
William Glover Recounts His Frame-up by the Memphis Police 
Longshore Leader Thomas Watkins Escapes Assassination 

2 From Country to City: Jim Crow at Work 
Hillie and Laura Pride Move to Memphis 
Matthew Davis Describes Heavy Industrial Work
George Holloway Remembers the Crump Era 
Clarence Coe Recalls the Pressures of White Supremacy 

3 Making a Way Out of No Way: Black Women Factory Workers 
Irene Branch Does Double Duty as a Domestic and Factory Worker 
Evelyn Bates Reflects on Her Lifetime of Factory Work 
Susie Wade Tells How She Built a Life around Work
Rebecca McKinley Remembers the Strike at Memphis Furniture Company

Interlude: Not What We Seem 

4 Freedom Struggles at the Point of Production 
Clarence Coe Fights for Equality 
Lonnie Roland and other Black Workers Implement the Brown Decision on the Factory Floor
George Holloway's Struggle against White Worker Racism 

5 Organizing and Surviving in the Cold War 
Leroy Clark Follows the Pragmatic Road to Survival in the Jim Crow South 
Leroy Boyd Battles White Supremacy in the Era of the Red Scare 

Interlude: Arts of Resistance 

6 Civil Rights Unionism 
Leroy Boyd Tells How Black Workers Used the Movement for Civil Rights to Revive Local I9
Factory Worker Matthew Davis Becomes a Community Leader 
Edward Lindsey Recalls Black Union Politics 
Alzada and Leroy Clark Fight for Unionism
and Civil Rights
Alzada Clark Organizes Black Women Workers in Mississippi 

7 "I Am a Man": Unionism and the Black Working Poor 
Taylor Rogers Relives the Memphis Sanitation Strike
fames Robinson Describes the Worst job He Ever Had 
Leroy Boyd and Clarence Coe Recall a Strike and the Death of Martin Luther King
William Lucy Reflects on the Strikes Meaning and Outcome 

8 The Fate of the Black Working Class: The Global Economy, Racism, and Union Organizing 
Confronting Deindustrialization
Ida Leachman Tells How Her Union Continues to Organize Low-Wage Workers 
George Holloway and Clarence Coe Reflect on the Importance of Unions and the Struggle 
against Racism 

Epilogue: Scars of Memory 
References and Notes 
Index 
Illustrations