Article contents
Race, Ethnicity, and Union in the Chicago Stockyards, 1917–1922
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2008
Summary
This article examines the ways in which unionization impacted upon race relations in Chicago's meatpacking industry. It focuses upon a period when a dynamic working-class movement sought to overcome barriers imposed by a hierarchical job structure and reinforced by ethnic and racial divisions. The movement drew its strength from several sources. The support of the Chicago Federation of Labor threw the resources of a powerful local movement behind the campaign and encouraged the emergence of new, inclusive, forms of organization. The existence of shop-floor organizations further augmented the movement's power. Finally, the intervention of the government, in the form of binding arbitration, led to dramatic improvements in wages and conditions which helped the movement consolidate its position. Although these gains were undone and the movement destroyed, the union campaign transformed racial and class experiences in the stockyards.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1992
References
1 DuBois, W.E.B., The Souls of Black Folk (New York, 1961), p. 23 (first edition: New York, 1903).Google Scholar
2 Two recent studies hold out promise: Arnesen, Eric, Waterfront Workers of New Orleans: Race, Class and Politics (New York, 1990),Google Scholar and William Trotter, Joe Jr, Coal, Class, and Color: Blacks in Southern West Virginia, 1915–1932 (Urbana, 1990).Google Scholar
3 Roediger, David, ““Labor in White Skin': Race and Working-class History”, in Mike, Davis and Sprinker, Michael (eds), Reshaping the US Left (London, 1987), pp. 288–289.Google Scholar
4 See, for example, Dickerson, Dennis, Out of the Crucible: Black Steelworkers in Western Pennsylvania, 1875–1980 (Albany, 1986).Google Scholar
5 John, W. Cell, The Highest Stage of White Supremacy: The Origins of Segregation in South Africa and the American South (New York, 1982), p. 17.Google Scholar
6 See, for example, Hill, Herbert, “Race, Ethnicity and Organized Labor: The Opposition to Affirmative Action”, New Politics, 1 ]new series] (Winter 1987), 2, pp. 31–32.Google Scholar
7 Cell, , Highest Stage, p. 16;Google Scholar see also Barbara, J. Fields, “Ideology and Race in American History”, in Kousser, J.M. and McPherson, James (eds), Region, Race and Reconstruction: Essays in Honor of C. Vann Woodward (New York, 1982), pp. 143–178.Google Scholar
8 The studies contributing to this model are too numerous to cite individually. The most important are Baron, Harold, “Racial Discrimination in Advanced Capitalism: A Theory of Nationalism and Division in the Labor Market”, in Edwards, Michael et al. (eds), Labor Market Segmentation (Lexington, 1973), pp. 202–231;Google Scholar and Bonacich, Edna, “A Theory of Ethnic Antagonism: The Split Labor Market”, American Sociological Review, 37 (10 1972), pp. 547–559.Google Scholar
9 For development of this critique see Saxton, Alexander, The Rise and Fall of the White Republic: Class Politics and Mass Culture in Nineteenth-Century America (London, 1990), pp. 6–8.Google Scholar
10 A full history of packinghouse unionism in Chicago focusing upon race is provided in Eric, Brian Halpem, “Black and White Unite and Fight': Race and Labor Meatpacking,1904–1948” (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 1989);Google Scholar for a complementary study of other major meatpacking centers see Horowitz, Roger, “The Path Not Taken: A Social History of Industrial Unionism in Meatpacking” (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1990).Google Scholar
11 Historical Statistics of the United States (Washington DC, 1975), p. 119.Google Scholar
12 James, R. Barrett, “Work and Community in ‘The Jungle’: Chicago's Packinghouse Workers, 1894–1922” (Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh, 1981), p. 298.Google Scholar
13 That year American meatpackers exported 30 million tons of canned beef, 31 million tons of fresh beef, and 183 million tons of bacon to the Allies and neutrals abroad; “Meat for the Multitudes” (special issue of the National Provisioner (4 07 1981) vol. 1, pp. 138, 147.Google Scholar
14 Spear, Allan, Black Chicago: The Making of a Negro Ghetto Chicago, 1967), pp. 132, 140;Google ScholarJames, R. Grossman, “A Dream Deferred: Black Migration to Chicago,1916–1921” (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1982), p. 5.Google Scholar
15 Grossman, , “Dream Deferred”, p. 24;Google ScholarChicago Commission on Race Relations, The Negro in Chicago Chicago, 1921), pp. 59–61.Google Scholar
16 Emmett, J. Scott, “Letters of Negro Migrants of 1916–1918”, Journal of Negro History, 4 (10 1919), pp. 464, 457,Google Scholar both quoted in Spear, , Black Chicago, p. 133.Google Scholar
17 Quoted in Grossman, , “Dream Deferred”, p. 6.Google Scholar
18 On the “breathtaking” contrast between northern and southern wages see Montgomery, David, The Fall of the House of Labor: The Workplace, The State, and American Labor Activism (New York, 1987), pp. 383–384; Testimony of Joe Hodges, in Hearings of Judge Samuel Alschuler, 20–23 June 1919, in Records of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, National Archives Record Center, Suitland Maryland (RG 280), 33\864 (hereafter cited as Alschuler Hearings).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19 “Meat for the Multitudes”, pp. 138, 147; Philip, Foner and Schultz, Reinhard, Das Andere Amerika: Geschichte, Kunst, und Kultur der Amerikanischen Arbeiterbewegung (Berlin, 1983), p. 224. James Barrett reports that the four largest packers, which had shown an aggregate profit of 19 million dollars for 1912–1914, registered 46 million dollars for 1916 and 68 million dollars for the following year;Google ScholarJames, R. Barrett, Work and Community in the Jungle: Chicago's Packinghouse Workers, 1894–1922 (Urbana, 1987), p. 189.Google Scholar
20 In 1914, thirty-seven establishments utilized 26,408 workers. In 1919, before demobilization had taken its toll, 45,695 packinghouse workers earned a living in Chicago's forty-six plants; Herbst, Alma, The Negro in the Slaughtering and Meat-Packing Industry (New York, 1932), p. 151.Google Scholar
21 Sterling, Spero and Harris, Abram, The Black Worker: The Negro and the Labor Movement (Port Washington, 1966) (first edition, 1931), p. 151.Google ScholarHaynes, George, The Negro at Work During the World War and Reconstruction (Washington DC, 1921). pp. 52–56.Google ScholarFogel, Walter, The Negro in the Meat Industry (Philadelphia, 1970), p. 29.Google Scholar
22 “In the Stockyards District 1917”, McDowell, Mary Papers, Folder 15, Chicago Historical Society, Chicago IL;Google ScholarBrody, David, The Butcher Workmen: A Study of Unionization (Cambridge, MA, 1964), p. 73.Google Scholar
23 Kampfert, Arthur, “History of Meatpacking, Slaughtering, and Unionism”, II, pp. 97–100, unpublished manuscript (c. 1949), State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, WI.Google Scholar
24 Brody, , Butcher Workmen, p. 73; National Provisioner, 14 10 1917, quoted in Brody.Google Scholar
25 William, Z. Foster, American Trade Unionism: Principles and Organization, Strategy and Tactics (New York, 1947), p. 22;Google ScholarJohanningsmeier, Edward, “William Z Foster: Labor Organizer and Communist” (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 1988),Google Scholar chapter 5. See also William, Z. Foster, “How Life Has Been Brought into the Stockyards”, Life and Labor, 7 (04 1918), p. 64.Google Scholar
26 Johanningsmeier, “William Z. Foster”, chapter 5.
27 Foster, , American Trade Unionism, p. 22.Google Scholar
28 Montgomery, , Fall of the House of Labor, p. 269;Google ScholarBarrett, , Work and Community, pp. 191–192;Google ScholarJohanningsmeier, , “William Z. Foster”, chapter 5; Foster, American Trade Unionism, pp. 20–21.Google Scholar For the career and trade-union philosophy of Fitzpatrick see Keiser, John, “John Fitzpatrick and Progressive Unionism” (Ph.D., Northwestern University, 1965).Google Scholar
29 Johanningsmeier, “William Z. Foster”, chapter 5; Brody, , Butcher Workmen, p. 76;Google ScholarBarrett, , Work and Community, p. 195.Google Scholar
30 Barrett, , Work and Community, p. 195;Google ScholarBrody, , Butcher Workmen, pp. 76–78; Foster, American Trade Unionism, p. 25.Google Scholar
31 Herbst, , Negro, p. 29.Google Scholar
32 Constitutions quoted in Hill, Herbert, “Race and Ethnicity in Organized Labor: The Historical Sources of Resistance to Affirmative Action”, Journal of Intergroup Relations, 12 (Winter 1984), p. 22.Google ScholarHerbst, , Negro, p. 31;Google ScholarWilliam, M. Tuttle Jr, Race Riot: Chicago in the Red Summer of 1919 (New York, 1970), p. 125.Google Scholar
33 Herbst, , Negro, p. 32;Google ScholarBarrett, , Work and Community, p. 194Google Scholar; Foster, , American Trade Unionism, pp. 22–23;Google Scholar see also Foster's, The Great Steel Strike (New York, 1920), p. 211.Google Scholar
34 Herbst, , Negro, pp. 32–33.Google Scholar
35 Browder, Earl, “Some Experiences Organizing Negro Workers”, The Communist, 9 (1930), pp. 35–41.Google Scholar Foote is identified in Sandburg, Carl, The Chicago Race Riot: 07 1919 (New York, 1919), p. 54.Google Scholar For the response of northern blacks see Grossman, , “A Dream Deferred”, p. 306;Google Scholar and Edna, Louise Clark, “A History of the Controversy Between Labor and Capital in the Slaughtering and Meat Packing Industries in Chicago” (MA Thesis, University of Chicago, 1922), p. 106.Google Scholar Fitzpatrick quoted in Herbst, , Negro, pp. 36–37.Google Scholar
36 Goins quoted in Tuttle, , Race Riot, p. 127;Google ScholarMcDowell, quoted in Spero and Harris, , The Black Worker, p. 130.Google Scholar
37 Chicago Commission on Race Relations, Negro in Chicago, p. 424.Google ScholarInterview with Lowell, Washington Jr, 28 04 1988, in possession of the author.Google Scholar
38 Grossman, , “A Dream Deferred”, pp. 340–342;Google ScholarSandburg, , Chicago Race Riots, p. 57;Google ScholarBarrett, , Work and Community, pp. 205, 213.Google Scholar
39 Grossman, , “A Dream Deferred”, pp. 345–346, 351–352;Google ScholarChicago Defender, 6 07 1918,Google Scholar quoted in Tuttle, , Race Riot, p. 153;Google ScholarBarrett, , Work and Community, p. 205.Google Scholar
40 Tuttle, , Race Riot, pp. 128–129, fn. 39.Google Scholar
41 The Swift correspondence first was cited in Clark, “A History”, p. 102, and is quoted at length in Herbst, , Negro, pp. 33–44;Google Scholar Interview with Kamarczyk, Gertie, 5 12 1987, in possession of the author.Google Scholar See also, Tuttle, , Race Riot, p. 129;Google Scholar and Kampfert, , “History”, II, pp. 105–106.Google Scholar
42 Foster, , American Trade Unionism, p. 26;Google ScholarBrody, , Butcher Workmen, pp. 78–79; Johanningsmeier, “William Z. Foster”, chapter 5.Google Scholar
43 Lane, Dennis, “A Brief History of Organization in Chicago Stock Yards”, Butcher Workman (11 1919), p. 1;Google ScholarWilliam, Z. Foster, From Bryan to Stalin (New York, 1936), pp. 90–93;Google Scholar see also Foster, , American Trade Unionism, pp. 25–27.Google Scholar
44 Brody, , Butcher Workmen, pp. 79–80.Google Scholar
45 Foster, , From Bryan to Stalin, p. 97.Google Scholar
46 Foster, , “How Life”, p. 68;Google ScholarBrody, , Butcher Workmen, pp. 81–82;Google ScholarBarrett, , Work and Community, pp. 198–200.Google Scholar
47 Kampfert, , “History”, II, p. 132;Google ScholarBarrett, , Work and Community, p. 200.Google ScholarBureau of Labor Statistics, Monthly Review, 6 (05 1918), pp. 115–127.Google Scholar
48 McDowell, Mary, “Easter Day After the Decision”,Survey, XL (13 04 1918), p. 38.Google Scholar Fitzpatrick quoted in Tuttle, , Race Riot, pp. 126–127;Google ScholarBarrett, , Work and Community, p. 200.Google Scholar
49 Glatt quoted in Tuttle, , Race Riot, p. 127;Google ScholarBrody, , Butcher Workmen, p. 83;Google ScholarFoster quoted in Johanningsmeier, , “William Z. Foster”, chapter 5.Google Scholar
50 Herbst, , Negro, pp. 39–40;Google ScholarBrody, , Butcher Workmen, p. 84Google ScholarBarrett, , Work and Community, p. 200. “Arbitration of Demands of Employees Filed with the Administrator November 12, 1918”, Papers of the United Packinghouse Workers of America, Box 1, Folder 3, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, WI.Google Scholar
51 Chicago Commission on Race Relations, Negro in Chicago, pp. 428–429;Google ScholarSpero, and Harris, , Black Worker, p. 274;Google ScholarBarrett, , Work and Community, p. 205.Google Scholar For interracial activity see Sandburg, , Chicago Race Riots, p. 55;Google Scholar and Browder, , “Some Experiences”, p. 35, passim.Google Scholar
52 Barrett, , Work and Community, p. 209;Google ScholarGrossman, , “Dream Deferred”, p. 321.Google Scholar
53 Testimony of Robert Bedford, Frank Custer, Walter Gorniak, Alschuler Hearings; Gomiak quoted, p. 525.
54 Testimony of Robert Bedford and Gus Grabe, Alschuler Hearings; Bedford quoted, p. 221.
55 For a theoretical discussion of the intermingling of racial and class consciousness, see Joe, William Trotter Jr, Black Milwaukee: The Making of an Industrial Proletariat,1915–1945 (Urbana, 1984), pp. 276–277.Google Scholar
56 Trotter, , Black Milwaukee, p. 277;Google ScholarRoediger, Dave, “Movin' On Up to the Midwest's Promised Land”, In These Times, 9–15 05 1990, p. 18.Google Scholar
57 In the summer of 1919 the League took over the operation of the US Employment Service's Black Belt office – in itself a measure of the League's importance to both the black community and Chicago's industries. Strickland, Arvah, History of the Chicago Urban League (Urbana, 1966);Google ScholarTuttle, , Race Riot, p. 99; Grossman, , “Dream Deferred”, pp. 245–246.Google Scholar
58 Grossman, , “Dream Deferred”, p. 275;Google ScholarSmith, Preston, “The Chicago Urban League” (Ph.D., University of Massachusetts-Amherst, 1988), pp. 26–31;Google ScholarStrickland, , History of the Chicago Urban League, pp. 48–49.Google Scholar
59 Grossman, , “Dream Deferred”, p. 360;Google ScholarTuttle, , Race Riot, p. 148;Google ScholarBarrett, , Work and Community, p. 212.Google ScholarEvans' attitude toward unionism is revealed in his article “The Negro in Chicago Industries”, Opportunity, 1 (02 1923), pp. 15–17.Google Scholar
60 Grossman, , “Dream Deferred”, pp. 247, 272;Google ScholarTuttle, , Race Riot, p. 101.Google Scholar
61 Grossman, , “Dream Deferred”, pp. 273, 335;Google ScholarTuttle, , Race Riot, p. 101;Google ScholarKate, J. Adams, Humanizing a Great Industry (Chicago, 1919), p. 21.Google Scholar
62 Barrett, , Work and Community, p. 213;Google ScholarGrossman, , “Dream Deferred”, p. 273, pp. 337–339;Google ScholarAdams, , Humanizing, p. 21;Google ScholarTestimony of Frank Custer and Johnstone, J.W., Hearings, Alschuler, pp. 267–269, 277, 508–509, 545.Google Scholar Evidence on training of butchers from Spero, and Harris, , Black Worker, p. 268.Google Scholar See also Arthur, George, “The Young Men's Christian Association Movement Among Negroes”, Opportunity, 1 (03 1923), pp. 16–18.Google Scholar
63 Herbst, , Negro, p. 35;Google Scholar advertisement quoted in Chicago Commission on Race Relations, Negro in Chicago, p. 423;Google ScholarTuttle, , Race Riot, p. 152;Google Scholar handbill quoted in Spero, and Harris, , Black Worker, p. 272.Google Scholar
64 Tuttle, , Race Riot, pp. 131–132.Google Scholar
65 Forrester Washington to Fitzpatrick, John, 25 01 1919, Fitzpatrick Papers, Box 25, “Negroes” folder, Chicago Historical Society, Chicago, IL; testimony of Walter, Gomiak, Hearings, Alschuler, p. 512;Google ScholarTuttle, , Race Riot, pp. 23–30.Google Scholar
66 Herbst, , Negro, p. 41;Google ScholarBrody, , Butcher Workmen, pp. 89–90;Google ScholarBarrett, , Work and Community, p. 226;Google ScholarFoster, , American Trade Unionism, p. 30.Google Scholar
67 Lane, , “A Brief History”, p. 1;Google ScholarFoster, , American Trade Unionism, pp. 30–31.Google Scholar
68 Testimony of Jacob, Wurmle and Caleb, S.C., Alschuler Hearings, pp. 6–21;Google Scholar Wilson information drawn from testimony of Williams, George, Alschuler Hearings, pp. 39–51; notice quoted on p. 47.Google Scholar
69 Testimony of Maldek, John, Alschuler Hearings, pp. 75–79; testimony of Sobyro, Joseph, Alschuler Hearings, pp. 110–111;Google Scholar see also testimony of Michora, Louis, Alschuler Hearings, pp. 96–100.Google Scholar
70 Testimony of Bedford, Robert, Alschuler Hearings, pp. 182–183;Google Scholar testimony of Custer, Frank, Alschuler Hearings, p. 230.Google Scholar
71 Testimony of Bedford, Robert, Alschuler Hearings, pp. 150–152, 177;Google Scholar testimony of Custer, Frank, Alschuler Hearings, pp. 261–263;Google Scholar see also testimony of Austin, “Heavy” Williams, , Alschuler Hearings, pp. 426–454.Google Scholar
72 Testimony of Bremmer, William, Alschuler Hearings, p. 194;Google ScholarBarrett, , Work and Community, p. 216;Google ScholarTuttle, , Race Riot, p. 154.Google Scholar
73 Herbst, , Negro, p. 42;Google ScholarGrossman, , “Dream Deferred”, p. 297.Google Scholar
74 All quotations from New Majority, 12 07 1919.Google Scholar
75 New Majority, 12 07 1919, 26 07 1919;Google ScholarHerbst, , Negro, p. 43;Google ScholarKampfert, , “History”, II, p. 166.Google Scholar
76 The phrase is borrowed from Czeslaw Milosz, quoted in Gitlin, Todd, The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage (New York. 1987). p. 3.Google Scholar
77 Detailed descriptions of the riot can be found in Tuttle, , Race Riot, pp. 4–10, 32–64; and Chicago Commission on Race Relations, Negro in Chicago, pp. 1–52.Google Scholar
78 Chicago Commission on Race Relations, Negro in Chicago, p. 11;Google ScholarBarrett, , Work and Community, p. 220.Google Scholar
79 Barrett, , Work and Community, pp. 222–223;Google ScholarHerbst, , Negro, p. 46.Google Scholar
80 Dziennik Zwiazkowy, 29 07 1919, quoted in Pacyga, “Villages”, p. 294.Google Scholar
81 New Majority, 2 08 1919;Google ScholarHerbst, , Negro, pp. 46–49;Google ScholarCayton, and Mitchell, , Black Workers, p. 249.Google Scholar
82 Barrett, . Work and Community, p. 223;Google ScholarTuttle, , Race Riot, pp. 60–61.Google Scholar
83 Narod Polski quoted in Pacyga, , “Villages”, p. 299.Google ScholarFitzpatrick quoted in Brody, , Butcher Workmen, p. 87.Google Scholar
84 Herbst, , Negro, p. 47;Google ScholarSpero, and Harris, , Black Worker, p. 277;Google ScholarCayton, and Mitchell, , Black Workers, p. 248;Google ScholarNew Majority, 9 08 1919.Google Scholar
85 Brody, , Butcher Workmen, p. 88;Google ScholarNew Majority, 16 08 1919;Google Scholar Fitzpatrick quoted in Spero, and Hams, , Black Worker, p. 277.Google Scholar
86 Herbst, , Negro, pp. 51–52;Google ScholarGrossman, , “Dream Deferred”, p. 327.Google Scholar
87 For the Amalgamated's official position and reasoning, see Lane, , “A Brief History”, p. 1;Google ScholarHerbst, , Negro, pp. 43–44;Google ScholarKampfert, , “History”, II, pp. 159, 166–167.Google Scholar
88 Barrett, , Work and Community, p. 225;Google ScholarBrody, , Butcher Workmen, pp. 89–90;Google ScholarLane, , “A Brief History”, p. 1.Google Scholar
89 Brody, , Butcher Workmen, pp. 90–91;Google ScholarBarrett, , Work and Community, pp. 228–229;Google ScholarNew Majority, 24 01 1920.Google Scholar
90 Barrett, , Work and Community, pp. 229–230;Google ScholarKampfert, , “History”, II, p. 208;Google ScholarHerbst, , Negro, pp. 56–57, 63.Google Scholar
91 The packers' offensive is detailed in Barrett, , Work and Community, pp. 240–254.Google Scholar The packers' welfare capitalism is examined in Halpern, Rick, “The Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove: Welfare Capitalism in Chicago's Packinghouses, 1922–1933” Journal of American Studies (forthcoming, 1992).Google Scholar
92 Brody, , Butcher Workmen, pp. 102–104;Google ScholarLane quoted in New York Times, 6 12 1921;Google ScholarKampfert, , “History”, II, p. 199.Google Scholar
93 Barrett, , Work and Community, pp. 258–260;Google ScholarKampfert, , “History”, II, pp. 200–211;Google ScholarNew York Times, 8 and 9 12 1921.Google Scholar
94 New York Times, 29 12 1921;Google ScholarHerbst, , Negro, pp. 63–65;Google ScholarCayton, and Mitchell, , Black Workers, pp. 255–256.Google Scholar
95 Defender quoted in Spero, and Harris, , Black Worker, p. 281;Google ScholarEvans, William, “The Negro in Chicago Industries”, Opportunity, 1 (02 1923);Google Scholar and Strickland, , “History”, p. 73.Google ScholarHerbst, , Negro, pp. 64–65.Google Scholar
96 Brody, , Butcher Workmen, p. 105;Google ScholarNew York Times, 25 12 1921, 1 01 1922, 1 02 1922.Google Scholar
97 Interview with Kamarczyk, Gertie, 5 12 1987;Google Scholar interview with Zabritski, Joe, 4 12 1987, both in possession of the author.Google Scholar
- 3
- Cited by