Black and blue : African Americans, the labor movement, and the decline of the Democratic party / Paul Frymer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Frymer, Paul.

Series:

Princeton studies in American politics.

Princeton studies in American politics : historical, international, and comparative perspectives

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Labor policy--United States--History--20th century.

Labor policy.

Labor unions--United States--History--20th century.

Labor unions.

African Americans--Civil rights--History--20th century.

African Americans.

United States--Race relations--History--20th century.

United States.

Democratic Party (U.S.)--History--20th century.

Democratic Party (U.S.).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (220 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, c2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the 1930's, fewer than one in one hundred U.S. labor union members were African American. By 1980, the figure was more than one in five. Black and Blue explores the politics and history that led to this dramatic integration of organized labor. In the process, the book tells a broader story about how the Democratic Party unintentionally sowed the seeds of labor's decline. The labor and civil rights movements are the cornerstones of the Democratic Party, but for much of the twentieth century these movements worked independently of one another. Paul Frymer argues that as Democrats passed separate legislation to promote labor rights and racial equality they split the issues of class and race into two sets of institutions, neither of which had enough authority to integrate the labor movement. From this division, the courts became the leading enforcers of workplace civil rights, threatening unions with bankruptcy if they resisted integration. The courts' previously unappreciated power, however, was also a problem: in diversifying unions, judges and lawyers enfeebled them financially, thus democratizing through destruction. Sharply delineating the double-edged sword of state and legal power, Black and Blue chronicles an achievement that was as problematic as it was remarkable, and that demonstrates the deficiencies of race- and class-based understandings of labor, equality, and power in America.

Contents:

Introduction

The dual development of national labor policy

The NAACP confronts racism in the labor movement, 1935-1964

The legal state and the power of the purse

Labor law and institutional racism

Conclusion : Law and democracy.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [141]-194) and index.

ISBN:

9786613133359

9781283133357

1283133350

9781400837267

140083726X

OCLC:

730151766