Race, Class, and Power in the Alabama Coalfields, 1908-21Brian Kelly's acclaimed look at the fault lines in the society of an Alabama city challenges the notion that white workers led the resistance to racial equality in the Jim Crow South. Kelly focuses on the forces that brought the black and white miners of Birmingham, Alabama, together during the hard-fought strikes of 1908 and 1920. He examines the systematic efforts by the region's powerful industrialists to create racial divisions as a means of splitting the workforce, preventing unionization, and keeping wages the lowest in the United States. He also details the role played by Birmingham's small but influential black middle class, whose espousal of industrial accommodation outraged black miners and revealed significant tensions within the African American community. |
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Contents
Introduction | 3 |
Judgment Day 1908 | 17 |
The Operators Dilemma | 25 |
The Limits of Reform from Above | 50 |
Racial Paternalism and the Black Miner | 81 |
White Supremacy and WorkingClass Interracialism | 108 |
War Migration and the Revival of Coalfield Militancy | 132 |
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ACOA advance Age-Herald Alabama American attempt authority Birmingham district Birmingham Labor Advocate Bittner black and white black labor black miners black workers called camps capitalism challenge coal coal operators coalfields colored complained confrontation continued convict Department developed direct early effect efforts employed employers equality federal field force hand History hold housing immigration important industrial interracial Iron John July June Kilby labor movement later leaders leading less letter living major meeting mines movement Negro North noted offered officials operators organization owners period political president problem production prominent race racial Records relations reported role seemed Sept skilled social South southern steel strike strikebreakers throughout tion turn union United University wages warned week welfare white miners women wrote
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Bibliographic information
| Title | Race, Class, and Power in the Alabama Coalfields, 1908-21 Volume 331 of Working class in American history, ISSN 2692-0867 |
| Author | Brian Kelly |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | University of Illinois Press, 2001 |
| ISBN | 0252069331, 9780252069338 |
| Length | 264 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |