Working People

In A Working People, historian Steven A. Reich examines the economic, political and cultural forces that have built and broken America’s black workforce for centuries. From the abolition of slavery through the Civil Rights Movement and Great Recession, African Americans have been singularly disadvantaged members of the workforce, repeatedly denied access to the opportunities all Americans are to be afforded under the Constitution.

Steven A. Reich (PhD, Northwestern) is associate professor of history at James Madison University and the editor of the three-volume Encyclopedia of the Great Black Migration.

Introduction Chronology Chapter One Emancipation and the Politics of Black Labor Chapter Two Jim Crow's Black Workers Chapter Three The Great Black Labor Migration Chapter Four A New Deal for Black Workers Chapter Five The Black Working-Class Movement for Civil Rights Chapter Six Opening the American Workplace Documents Selected Bibliography