CIVIL RIGHTS AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT: A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

Eric Arnesen
The George Washington University

Anyone familiar with the labor movement today knows that organized labor is a heterogeneous group – African Americans, Latinos, Asians and Asian Americans, whites, men and women, citizens and undocumented workers all make up the ranks of the unions affiliated with Change to Win and the AFL-CIO.  There is no question that the American labor force is characterized by unprecedented diversity – and, not surprisingly, organized labor is as well.  In recent years, the labor movement has come to embrace and, to an unprecedented degree, champion racial and gender equality, often putting it at the forefront of movements for equality and civil rights in the United States.  And that connection – labor and civil rights – has deep historical roots.