Chicago Race Riots/Chapter 10
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UNIONS AND THE COLOR LINE
At the Saddle and Sirloin club there sat in conference one day a few months ago representatives from two groups. On one side of the table were men speaking for the most active organizations of colored people in Chicago in matters of employment and general welfare. On the other side of the table were men speaking for the packers who employ at the stockyards upwards of 15,000 colored men and women, interests that are to-day and are expected to be in the future the largest employers of colored labor.
Four points to constitute a guiding policy in employment were offered by the colored representatives, with a statement that the principles embodied the general sense of the leaders of social, industrial, welfare and religious groups of the colored race in Chicago. After discussion the representatives of the packers agreed to accept the four points, and they are regarded by the colored people as in force and effective until further notice.
The four points as phrased in the conference at the Saddle and Sirloin club, are;
1. That whenever we are attempting to introduce' negro workers into trades in which white workers are unionized, we must urge the negroes to join the unions.
2. That when we are introducing negro labor into industries in which the white workers are not unionized, we advise negroes, in case the effort is made to unionize the industry, to join with their white comrades.
3. That we strongly urge the organizers of all the unions in industries which may be opened to colored labor, not only to permit, but actively to assist in incorporating negroes into the unions.
4. In cases where negroes are prevented from joining the unions, the right is reserved of complete liberty of action as to the advice that will be given to negro working men.
With these points in force, the men concerned felt that they had taken all steps humanly possible to avert any such disaster as came to East St. Louis, where labor conditions were a factor.
Estimates as to the number of colored workers who have joined the trade unions of the Stockyards Labor council vary from 6,000 to 10,000. The organizers say they are too busy to make even an approximate count. They say further that the organizations are mixed colored and white, and a count of membership is not as easy as it would be if all colored members were segregated in one local. Such a segregation is not being thought of.
"Men who work together in mixed gangs of white and colored workers believe their trade union ought to be organized just like the work gang," said A. K. Foote, a colored man whose craft is that of hog killer and who is secretary of local 651 of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America.
"If you ask me what I think about race prejudice, and whether it's getting better," he said, "I'll tell you the one place in this town where I feel safest is over at the yards, with my union button on. The union is for protection, that's our cry. We put that on our organization wagons and trucks traveling the stockyards district, in signs telling the white and colored men that their interests are identical.
"We had a union ball a while ago in the Coliseum annex, and 2,000 people were there. The whites danced with their partners and the colored folks with theirs. The hog butchers' local gave a picnic recently and they came around to our people with tickets to sell, and the attendance at the picnic was cosmopolitan. Whenever you hear any of that race riot stuff, you can be sure it is not going to start around here. Here they are learning that it pays for white and colored men to call each other brother."
Local 651 has a commodious, well-kept office at 43d and State streets. It is known as the "miscellaneous" local, taking in as members the common laborers and all workers not qualifying for membership in a skilled craft union. One advantage for colored workers, according to organizers, is that the seniority rights of such workers are now accorded. If the head of a work gang quits for any reason and a colored man is the oldest in point of service in the gang or department, he is automatically advanced. When an organization meeting was held recently on a Sunday afternoon in a public school yard at 33d street and Wentworth avenue, the police directed that the parade of the colored workmen from their hall at 43d and State streets must not march down State street through the district most heavily populated with negroes. The union officials are still mystified by the police explanation that it was safer and better for the colored procession to take a line of march where there were the smallest number of negro residents on the streets.
Margaret Bondfield, fraternal delegate from the British trades union congress, spoke to the audience, which numbered about 3,000. Probably 2,000 stood in the hot sun three hours while the American Giants (colored) played in the next lot, and the White Sox game was on only two blocks away.
John Riley and C. Ford, organizers carrying authorizations from the American Federation of Labor, were speakers. Ford has personality, rides rough-shod over English grammar, but wins his crowd with homely points such as these:
"If I had any prejudice against a white man in this crowd any more than I've got against a colored man, then I'd jump down here off this platform and break my infernal neck right now."
"You boys know about rassling. You know if you throw a rassler down you know you got to stay down with him if you're going to keep him down: If you don't stay down with him, he'll get up and you got to throw him again."
"You notice there ain't no Jim Crow cars here to-day. That's what organization does. The truth is there ain't no negro problem any more than there's a Irish problem or a Russian or a Polish or a Jewish or any other problem. There is only the human problem, that's all. All we demand is the open door. You give us that, and we won't ask nothin' more of you."
It was a curious equation of human races that stood listening to this talk. Lithuanians, Poles, Slovaks, Italians and colored men mingled in all sections of the crowd, and every speaker touching the topic of prejudice got the same kind of a response from all parts of the crowd. So they stood in the July afternoon sun, listening as best they could to what they could hear from their orators, while the noisy cheers and laughter of two ball games came on the air in great gusts. They were 2,000 men for whom the race problem is solved. Their theory is that when economic equality of the races is admitted, then the social, housing, real estate, transportation or educational phases are not difficult.
"We all know there are unions in the American Federation of Labor that have their feet in the 20th century and their heads in the i6th century," said Secretary Johnstone of the Stockyards Labor council, as applause swept the sunburned 2,000. He was referring to the unions that draw the color line.
The Rev. L. K. Williams of Olivet Baptist church, which has a membership of 8,500, and the Rev. John F. Thomas of the Ebenezer Baptist church at 35th and Dearborn streets, besides other clergymen, have voiced approval of the campaign for organization of colored labor in affiliation with the trade union movement. There was dissent to organization spoken by a few ministers at one time, but this is said now to have changed to approval.
A unique memorial was circulated among all colored clergymen in Chicago by five labor unions in which the colored people have a large representation. In order that each copy should bear proof of its authenticity, it was embossed with the seal of each of the five unions and signed by the officers. The memorial read:
"Whereas, God is the creator of all mankind and has endowed us with certain inalienable rights that should be respected one by the other, so that peace and harmony will reign and hell on earth be subdued; and,
"Whereas, the unscrupulous white plutocrats, aided by corrupt politicians, have usurped even the rights of the workers guaranteed by the constitution and supplanted oppression and discord by propagating race hatred, discrimination and class distinction, and
"Whereas, the credulous common people (white and black) have been the maltreated tools of these financial master mechanics, and their fallacious teachings have kept us divided and made their throne more secure, and
"Whereas, the power of the united front and concerted action of all toilers is the only medium through which industrial and political democracy can be obtained, wage slavery and unjust legislation destroyed, and
"Whereas, the executive board of the American Federation of Labor on April 22, 19 18, in Washington, D. C, was met by a committee of recognized race leaders, and adopted plans thoroughly to organize the colored workers in industry, putting them on the some economic level with other races; therefore, be it
"Resolved, that we appeal to the conscientious race leaders. Intellectuals and other God fearing men of influence, who believe in human rights, justice and fair play and are desirous of conveying light and plenty where darkness and want predominate, to assist the 60,000 colored members of the American Federation of Labor in fostering and encouraging members of our race to affiliate with the bona fide labor movement, to the end that we will have a larger representation in this Industrial army, which will exemplify to the white progressives, as well as autocrats, that we are 'straws in the new broom of reconstruction, that will sweep clean American Institutions, ridding them of discrimination and corruption.' "
With the official union seals were the signatures of George A. Swan, president; Hugh Swift, vice president, and R. E. Copeland, secretary of the Musicians' Protective union; Garrett Rice, president, A. L. Johnson, vice president, and A. Welcher, secretary of the Railway Coach Cleaners' union; N. S. WImms, president, and P. D. Campbell, vice president, of the Sleeping Car Porters of America; Annie M. Jones, president, Isabel Case, vice president, and Mabel Kinglln, secretary of local 213 of the Butcher Workmen's union; Henry Pappers, president, J. W. Smith, vice president, and A. K. Foote, secretary of local 651 of the Butcher Workmen's union.
There is odd humor in the fact that Dr. George C. Hall, a colored surgeon and real estate proprietor to the extent of $100,000, has been for years an honorary member of the Meat Cutters' and Butcher Workmen's union. Dr. Hall always has contended that organization is one route away from race discrimination.