| This dissertation examines the efforts of black labor activists to overcome racial discrimination within the work place. Evolving from earlier caucuses organized in the United Auto Workers Union, African-Americans formed the Trade Union Leadership Council in 1957 to force union leaders to make available more skilled jobs for blacks. In 1960, TULC activists joined other African-American labor leaders to form the Negro American Labor Council which sought to end racial discrimination within the AFL-CIO. NALC members demanded more aggressive action to end race-based qualifications for placement in skilled jobs and apprenticeship programs. Internal conflicts soon weakened the NALC. Members debated the possibilities to overcome strong resistance to their demands within the AFL-CIO. A. Philip Randolph, leader of the NALC, and his supporters advocated a joint effort with the Federation to enact federally sponsored full employment legislation. NALC militants, led by TULC leaders, supported full employment plans, but preferred to decertify discriminating locals which denied them the protections of federal labor laws. At the 1962 NALC convention, Randolph and his followers defeated resolutions for decertification sponsored by the TULC leaders. The NALC officially reconciled with the AFL-CIO, and the militants withdrew much of their active support. The strength of black labor activists thus became diluted and divided.; In the early 1970s, the NALC militants formed the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, to create a mass movement independent from the AFL-CIO. CBTU activists aggressively supported the Humphrey-Hawkins Act, a federal plan to create full employment. Because of intense political opposition, the new law did not contain the job-creating provision to end high unemployment. Black labor activists did succeed in creating national organizations dedicated to working-class advocacy, something that had not existed prior to their efforts. |
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