Guardians of the Black Working Class: Labor and Racial Politics in Postwar San Francisco

"Guardians of the Black Working Class" tells two intersecting stories of postwar urban America. First and foremost, it examines the impact of the "Second Great Migration" on San Francisco and in particular the way in which black labor migrants experienced and transformed the city in the decades following World War II. Second, it provides a different perspective from which to view the "urban crisis" and the fate of postwar liberalism. Contrary to the dominant declension narrative that dominates the historical writing about postwar cities and liberalism, San Francisco seemed to survive the urban crisis comparatively well and represents a place where liberalism remained preeminent in the local political culture. This dissertation argues that black trade unionists, with the support of their unions and especially the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU), had a lot to do with this. Arriving in a city with a weak black political and civil rights tradition, a cadre of African-American workers who settled in San Francisco during and shortly after World War II emerged as influential community and civic leaders in the 1950s and 1960s. This study suggests that these black trade unionists, who considered themselves the guardians of the city's black working class in the postwar period, occupied a unique social, economic, and political niche from which they sought to lead the fight for racial justice and strengthen liberalism in the postwar era. Placing them at the center of the story of civil rights, urban crisis, and liberalism sheds new light on the history of race, class, radicalism, and politics in postwar urban America.;This dissertation draws upon a wide range of sources. It uses the archival records of the ILWU and Local 250 of the Transport Workers Union to uncover the activities of black trade unionists within their unions as well as in their communities. Several other manuscript collections, especially the records of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's western region and the mayoral papers of Joseph Alioto, figure prominently in the dissertation's discussion of local civil rights and political history. These sources are supplemented with an array of government records, hearings, and reports, along with FBI files obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The dissertation also draws heavily upon several daily and weekly newspapers, and especially those, such as the Sun-Reporter, published by African Americans. Several oral history interviews, some part of archival and published collections and others conducted by the author, help shed light where the written record is sparse while also enriching the human element to the history that unfolds on these pages.;This dissertation is organized into three sections. The first three chapters examine the experiences of black workers who migrated to San Francisco during and immediately after World War II and suggests that the ability of black labor migrants to gain entrance to strong progressive unions was central to the development of black labor, community, and political activism in San Francisco. The presence of the ILWU in particular distinguished the African- American postwar experience in San Francisco from their counterparts in other northern cities -- particular those in the Northeast and Midwest. As World War II gave way to the Cold War, white leaders in the ILWU came to view the fate of their union, which had ties to the Communist Party, as intricately bound with that of the city's new (and rapidly expanding) African American population. It therefore endeavored to establish a mutually beneficial relationship in which African Americans supported the ILWU and the union helped lead the fight against discrimination in employment, housing, and policing. In doing so ILWU leaders groomed a cadre of black trade unionists who could better connect the union to the community. Chapters Four and Five comprise the second section and focus on the relationship between the ILWU, African Americans, and liberalism in San Francisco. Led in part by its African American members, the ILWU forged a strong political alliance with black voters during the 1950s and 1960s. This alliance helped provide each with political muscle, and they translated that strength into palpable political power when they joined forces with Joseph Alioto, a moderate "New Deal" liberal who was elected mayor in 1967. This alliance was significant for two reasons. First, it demonstrates how African Americans were able to obtain political influence in a city that lacked a black political tradition and anything resembling a black political leadership class. Second, it highlights the continued role that leftist veterans of the "popular front" era played within liberal politics during the 1960s and 1970s. The ILWU and the city's black trade unionists sought to push Alioto to the left on certain issues, while Alioto tried deployed them to diffuse racial tensions and help him -- with a modicum of success -- guide San Francisco through the "urban crisis." The dissertation's final section explores the encounter between black trade unionists (along with their liberal political and labor allies) and Black Power. Chapter Six examines an attempt by the Black Panther Party to organize black members of the Transport Workers Union Local 250, which represented the bus, streetcar, and cable car operators in San Francisco. Chapter Seven then describes the efforts of black construction contractors to use liberal reformers' concerns over community-based Black Power movements as a lever with which to place black entrepreneurs at the center of employment-based affirmative action programs. The failures of both was testament to the strength black-labor-liberal alliance in San Francisco.;Although San Francisco's past does not always conform to the dominant Midwest- Northeast-centered postwar narrative of African American, political, and urban history, it should not be dismissed an exception or an anomaly (as is so often the case). Rather, its distinct and regional characteristics should be considered as variations, alternatives, and contingencies that existed alongside the more well-known histories of its thoroughly-studied counterparts. This dissertation contends that San Francisco can draw our attention to historical developments that might not be as apparent in other places.