Race against Liberalism examines how black worker activism in Detroit shaped the racial politics of the labor movement and the white working class. David M. Lewis-Colman traces the substantive, long-standing disagreements between liberals and the black workers who embraced autonomous race-based action. As he shows, black autoworkers placed themselves at the center of Detroit's working-class politics and sought to forge a kind of working class unity that accommodated their interests as African Americans. The book covers the independent caucuses in the 1940s and the Trade Union Leadership Council in the 1950s; the black power movement and Revolutionary Union Movements of the mid-1960s; and the independent race-based activism of the 1970s that resulted in Coleman Young's 1973 election as the city's first black mayor.
| ISBN: | 9780252075056 |
| Publication date: | 23rd May 2008 |
| Author: | David M. Lewis-Colman |
| Publisher: | University of Illinois Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 176 pages |
| Series: | Working Class in American History |
| Genres: |
Ethnic studies Social and cultural history History of the Americas Local history Industrial relations, occupational health and safety |