The Labors of a Race: Labor and Leaders in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

Since the mid-19th century, labor activism in the African American community has shifted from least to most important in the Black freedom struggle. The roles of major figures like Martin Luther King Jr., W.E.B. Dubois, and Booker T. Washington are crucial in understanding the rise of the African American Labor Movement. A trend of merging social and labor goals from the post Civil War era to the late 1960s culminated with the Memphis sanitation strike in 1968.