Black Folk

1. Slavery's Legacy Shaped the Black Working Class

All the while, Black people were keen observers of the world around them, critiquing the wider society and its hierarchies.

Intergenerational bondage. The Black working class emerged from the brutal system of chattel slavery, where labor was extracted through force and racial hierarchy was legally enforced. This history of dispossession, exclusion, and exploitation continued to shape the lives and opportunities of Black workers long after Emancipation. The enslaved were brought to this country not as immigrants, but as slaves.

Critique of wider society. Despite their oppression, Black people were not passive victims. They keenly observed the world around them, critiquing its hierarchies and understanding the profound value of their labor, even when they were treated as mere chattel. They understood the profound value of their labor even when they were thought of as just chattel and, later, as an emancipated people.

Reshaping the world. The enslaved took church songs and work songs and made them into messages of resistance and escape. Free Black women used their monopoly on laundry to take collective holidays. Rail workers used the segregation of Black men and women into jobs as porters and maids to organize an unbreakable union. Migrants moved community networks with them to new regions of the country to find jobs, and organize in new cities.

2. Black Community Provided Strength and Resilience

Tracing the roots of the Black working class, I found again and again that Black folks’ sense of self was supported not by the jobs they held but by their place within their own communities.

Value beyond labor. Black people's sense of self was rooted in their communities, not in the demeaning jobs they were often forced to take. They knew their worth, even as the world told them they had very little. They carried their knowledge, of themselves and their pasts and their abilities, to Southern cities, and then to the North and the West.

Vital spaces of resistance. Black people built and rebuilt vital spaces of resistance, grounded in the secrets that they knew about themselves, about their community, their dignity, and their survival. One of those secrets was joy in spite of sorrow: amid their endless labor, amid the violence, amid the hate, ordinary Black people managed not only to resist but to laugh and to make fun and to love.

Collective power. Within such havens, Black people created the collective power that would drive their political engagement with the world. As they organized mutual aid societies, played card games, shot pool, worshipped in Black churches, and went to segregated schools, they maintained their own vision of what it meant to be Black and what they could hope to gain through their labors.

3. Black Women's Labor Was Essential Yet Undervalued

Well before Henry was born in Elbert County, there were emancipations as well as opportunities for Black workers to challenge the assumptions about what freedom might mean.

Skills discounted. Black women's skills, honed during slavery, were systematically discounted in freedom. Despite their expertise, they were relegated to low-paying, menial jobs. The enslaved were ironworkers, seamstresses, masons, housemaids, carpenters, wet nurses. They were the midwives who delivered Black and white children. They built the walls that curve around Thomas Jefferson’s university gardens. They quarried the stone for the White House.

Independence prioritized. Black women often chose jobs that offered independence and control over their time, even if the pay was low. This allowed them to care for their families and communities. They took the skills that had made them prized property as women in bondage, and put them to work for themselves.

Resistant washerwomen. Washerwomen, for example, organized to set fair prices for their labor and take collective holidays. They took leading roles in organizing movements to set the terms of their labor, improve their pay, care for the vulnerable members of their communities, and determine their political futures. As white politicians increasingly sought to segregate, disenfranchise, and police the Black working class, the women who worked as laundresses were the heart of a community determined to resist and survive.

4. Migration Offered Hope but Not a Guarantee of Equality

John Dee and Brunell thought that the relative anonymity of a larger town might provide them with opportunities to advance.

Seeking better opportunities. The Great Migration saw millions of Black southerners move north in search of better jobs, education, and safety from racial violence. They thought that the relative anonymity of a larger town might provide them with opportunities to advance.

New forms of discrimination. However, they often faced new forms of discrimination in the North, including housing segregation and limited job opportunities. Housing discrimination, violently enforced by white residents, left thousands of Black migrants crowded into just three areas in the city.

Building community in the North. Despite these challenges, Black migrants built vibrant communities in the North, establishing churches, schools, and mutual aid societies. They bought city clothes and found places to dance and drink on an evening out. Sitting out on the freshly washed white marble stoop, they communed with family and made friends with other migrants from Georgia and North and South Carolina.

5. Black Workers Organized for Economic Justice

We do not wish in the least to charge exorbitant prices, but desire to be able to live comfortably if possible from the fruits of our labor.

Collective action. Black workers recognized the importance of collective action to improve their working conditions and economic standing. They knew that they were much more than the labor they performed and the unfair conditions they faced.

Washerwomen's strikes. Washerwomen, for example, organized strikes to demand better wages and working conditions. They took leading roles in organizing movements to set the terms of their labor, improve their pay, care for the vulnerable members of their communities, and determine their political futures.

Intertwined rights. They reminded one another that their right to access good and fair employment was inextricable from their fight to be full, free citizens. The descendants of the enslaved knew that their rights as workers were human rights. Their fights against racism and against labor exploitation were always one.

6. The Pullman Porters Symbolized Black Labor's Potential

For African Americans, work was first defined in the binds of slavery.

Elite Black workers. The Pullman porters, who served passengers on luxury train cars, were among the most well-traveled and respected members of the Black community. They were the most well-traveled Black folks in America, the Pullman porters provided assistance to people seeking opportunity in the North and West, connecting porters’ home folks with jobs, and offering their knowledge about the cities where migrants planned to settle, including information about living spaces for rent.

Unionization efforts. They organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first Black-led union to gain recognition from the American Federation of Labor. The enslaved took church songs and work songs and made them into messages of resistance and escape. Free Black women used their monopoly on laundry to take collective holidays. Rail workers used the segregation of Black men and women into jobs as porters and maids to organize an unbreakable union.

Civil rights advocacy. The Brotherhood became a powerful voice for civil rights, advocating for equal opportunities and an end to discrimination. They used their platform to call to task not only corporate greed but also a nation whose wealth had been and continued to be built on the backs of Black workers.

7. The Post Office Became a Bastion of Black Employment

Even in hard circumstances, this work was meaningful.

Federal employment. The US Postal Service became a significant employer of Black workers, offering stable jobs and decent wages. The distinctiveness of the Black working class is manifest today. Black people are not only more likely to be the working class than white Americans, but Black workers are also more likely to be union members than people in any other group—a remarkable statistic, particularly given that most Black workers live in the South, the region where business works harder, and more successfully, to crush labor organizing.

Community leaders. Black postal workers often became leaders in their communities, using their positions to advocate for civil rights and economic justice. They maintained the faith that they would soon find freedom, a Jubilee and just recompense for their labor. When freedom did finally come, these congregations became the first free Black collective spaces. The lessons of those hushed conversations were passed down, becoming a guide for the first generations of Black people post-Emancipation.

Threats to the Postal Service. Today, the Postal Service is under threat, with efforts to defund and privatize it potentially harming Black workers and communities. The distinctiveness of the Black working class is manifest today. Black people are not only more likely to be the working class than white Americans, but Black workers are also more likely to be union members than people in any other group—a remarkable statistic, particularly given that most Black workers live in the South, the region where business works harder, and more successfully, to crush labor organizing.

8. Black Workers Fought for Civil Rights and Economic Power

Even two generations after the Great Emancipation, my grandparents were still fervently struggling to be free.

Intertwined struggles. Black workers understood that their fight for economic justice was inseparable from their fight for civil rights. As the descendants of people who saw enslavement end, they knew change was possible.

March on Washington Movement. A. Philip Randolph, head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, organized the March on Washington Movement to demand equal access to defense jobs during World War II. The distinctiveness of the Black working class is manifest today. Black people are not only more likely to be the working class than white Americans, but Black workers are also more likely to be union members than people in any other group—a remarkable statistic, particularly given that most Black workers live in the South, the region where business works harder, and more successfully, to crush labor organizing.

Executive Order 8802. This pressure led to President Roosevelt issuing Executive Order 8802, which banned discrimination in defense industries and government employment. The distinctiveness of the Black working class is manifest today. Black people are not only more likely to be the working class than white Americans, but Black workers are also more likely to be union members than people in any other group—a remarkable statistic, particularly given that most Black workers live in the South, the region where business works harder, and more successfully, to crush labor organizing.

9. The Fight for Black Economic Justice Continues

The distinctiveness of the Black working class is manifest today.

Ongoing challenges. Despite progress, Black workers continue to face systemic barriers to economic opportunity. Black people are not only more likely to be the working class than white Americans, but Black workers are also more likely to be union members than people in any other group—a remarkable statistic, particularly given that most Black workers live in the South, the region where business works harder, and more successfully, to crush labor organizing.

Contemporary movements. Black workers are at the forefront of today's most important labor movements, from the fight for a $15 minimum wage to unionizing Amazon workers. Even in exploitative conditions, which from the outside appear to leave little space for them to exercise any power, Black workers draw on an unusually strong legacy of collective activism.

A vision for the future. By studying the history of the Black working class, we can discern a vision of a better collective future, one informed by care for themselves and others, and shaped by a dignity that could not be shaken despite the circumstances. Black Folk demonstrates that those churchyards, factory floors, railcars, and postal sorting facilities were sites of possibility, and that warehouse processing centers, supermarkets, and nursing homes can be the same today.

Last updated: March 10, 2025