Organized Labor and the Negro

Abstract

Organized Labor throughout its history in the United States has not only failed to unite its forces but it has also permitted racial barriers to maintain additional divisions in its ranks. From the beginning of the organized labor movement to the present day, the status of the Negro worker has presented a situation which has been difficult for labor to settle satisfactorily. The first national labor union, the National Labor Union, which was organized in 1866 and held its first convention in 1869, agreed to admit Negroes to membership.' Local unions in subsequent years nullified these statements. These denials led Negroes to establish separate labor organizations. The first of these met in Washington, D.C., in 1869. This convention is important only in the fact that it was the first successful attempt of Negroes to organize on a national basis after the Civil War. The Knights of Labor, which was also organized in 1869, planned, according to its declarations, to unite all workers in a common cause. Negroes joined the organization in large numbers because it claimed to make no distinction of race. These organizations composing the American Labor Movement of earlier years failed in their purposes either to organize labor or to influence the status of Negro workers.2