Full Description
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.
Contents
CoverTitleCopyrightContentsAcknowledgmentsText AbbreviationsIntroduction1. Ambivalent Solidarity2. A Negro Caucus3. Communism and Civil Rights4. The Triumph of Racial Liberalism5. The Trade Union Leadership Council6. Black-Power CaucusesConclusionNotesBibliographyIndexBack cover
