Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.
-
Upload
damaris-tesler -
Category
Documents
-
view
214 -
download
0
Transcript of Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.
![Page 1: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Labor in the Gilded Age
Lecture 1
The Great Strikes and Demonstrations
![Page 2: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Administrative
• Reading for next time– Montgomery – Work Rules and Manliness…– Haymarket Anarchist…Fights for Freedom
• Reading for class after movie– George Pullman Defends Managerial
Paternalism– Samuel Gompers Defends the Right to Strike
• Movie in class next time – snacks!
![Page 3: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Review
• Working conditions and relations among different parts of the working class from the Civil War to 1880
• Development of unions, especially national labor federations, especially the Knights of Labor
![Page 4: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Today
I- Period of great strikes
II- The Haymarket Square Riot
![Page 5: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
I- Period of Great Labor Upheavals
• Great labor wars between workers and the monopoly capitalists
• Demonstrations that employers and their allies in government were determined to crush
• Employer claim that strikes and unions were the work of anarchists, communists, and were un-American
![Page 6: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Focus of Strikes: Heart of American Industry
• Railroads – Railroad Strike of 1877– Strikes against Gould’s railways in 1885 and 1886 by
the Knights– Strike by American Railway Union against Pullman in
1894
• Mining– Metal Miners, Coeur D’Alene Idaho– Coal Miners, Tennessee
• Steel – The Homestead Strike - 1892
![Page 7: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Government and Strikes
• In many of these cases, the union was poised to win a great victory
• In most of those, government intervention on the side of the employers turned the tide
• Some took the lesson that workers needed political influence
• Others took the lesson that unions should stay out of politics in the hope that government would then stay out of union business
![Page 8: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
II- Haymarket Square Riot
• May 1886
• Began with the demand that workers implement the 8-hour day on May 1, 1886
• On May 3, lockout at McCormick Harvester works turned violent
![Page 9: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Chicago Central Labor Council
• Led by Anarcho-Syndicalists
• One was Albert Parsons, who was told to get out of town during the 1877 railway strike
• Called demonstration downtown to protest the police action at McCormick the previous day
![Page 10: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
![Page 11: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
The Demonstration
• Series of fiery speakers
• The Mayor left, stopping at the local police station to tell the police chief it was a peaceful meeting and there was no problem
• Police arrived
![Page 12: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
The Riot
• Bomb thrown, no one knows by whom, into the police ranks
• One killed immediately (several died later) and many injured
• Police began shooting and clubbing wildly
• No one knows how many died but over 200 injured
![Page 13: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Aftermath
• Group of men charged
• Included Parsons and his associate August Spies
• Both had left the demonstration around the same time the mayor did
![Page 14: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
Aftermath
• State’s Attorney said, “Convict these men, make examples of them, hang them, and you save our institutions.”
• Chicago police instituted reign of terror against dissident groups
• Same State’s Attorney told the police to, “Make the raids first and look up the law afterwards.”
![Page 15: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Trial
• Parsons went into hiding
• Candidates for the jury chosen by a special bailiff instead of at random– One was a relative of a police victim– Others admitted prejudice but were permitted
to serve anyway
• Evidence filled with contradictory and unclear statements and obvious lies
![Page 16: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Trial
• Jury was inundated with anarchist and socialist literature
• Really defendants’ ideology that was on trial
• All 8 convicted and five sentenced to death
• Executed November 1887
• Others pardoned in 1894
![Page 17: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
Impact
• Haymarket Square set back the labor movement for years
• Simultaneously associated by the press with the Molly Maguires, the Anarchists, and the Knights
• 1886 200,000 workers had achieved 8 hours. By one year later, only 15,000 still had it
• Still has an impact now
![Page 18: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
Next Time
• Film next class
• Following class we’ll talk about the Pullman Strike
![Page 19: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
Labor in the Gilded Age
Lecture 2
Film- The River Ran Red
![Page 20: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
Labor in the Gilded Age
Lecture 3
The Pullman Strike
![Page 21: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
Administrative
• Reading – finish this topic
• Essay reminder
![Page 22: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
Review
• Period of great strikes– Railroad – 1877 Railway Strike– Mining– Steel – Homestead Strike
• The Haymarket Square Riot– Riot blamed on Anarchist-led unionists but
clearly not their doing– Major setback for unionism
![Page 23: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
Today
The Pullman Strike of 1894
I. Eugene V. Debs and Industrial Unionism
II. The Pullman Company
III. Causes of the strike
IV. Conduct of the strike
V. The Aftermath
![Page 24: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
I. Eugene Debs and Industrial Unionism
• Born in Indiana 1855
• Had worked as Fireman and as Engineer
• Popular and influential
• Believed strikes not an effective labor weapon, advocated arbitration
• Same time as he changed his mind about strikes, he began to doubt the effectiveness of craft unionism
![Page 25: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
I. Debs and Industrial Unionism
• June 1893 American Railway Union founded
• Early success in strike against Great Northern Railroad
• Result was dramatic growth
![Page 26: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
II. The Pullman Company
• George M. Pullman came from working class family
• Developed idea for sleeping cars on trains
• Success led to need for large factory which he built in Chicago in 1880
• Decided to build a model community for his workshops and workers
![Page 27: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
The Model Community
• Rents 25% higher than in neighboring communities
• Gas had to be bought from the company
• Spies
• In 1892 Pullman made $4,000,000
![Page 28: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
III. Causes of the Strike
• Summer 1893, in midst of panic, Pullman decided to cut costs
• Refused to reduce rents or cost of utilities
• December 1893 strike
• Result was that the men began to form branches of the ARU
![Page 29: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
III. Causes of the Strike
• May 1894 elected committee to bring grievances to management
• Next morning, three of the committee members were fired
• Meeting of the full committee that evening decided on a strike unless the men were rehired
![Page 30: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
IV. Conduct of the Strike
• Pullman went on vacation
• Workers formed strike committee
• For a month, strike remained local and peaceful
• June 12, 1894 ARU opened its first national convention, in Chicago
• Debs predicted boycott would become national strike
![Page 31: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
IV. Conduct of the Strike
• After 4 days 125,000 workers on strike
• Initially quite peaceful
• Widespread support by workers of all kinds
• Mail cars moved fine and almost no violence at all in Chicago
• Clearly the workers were winning
![Page 32: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/32.jpg)
IV. Conduct of the Strike
• Media turned against strike once it spread beyond Pullman
• Still clearly the workers were winning
• Of the 24 rail lines feed Chicago, 13 were virtually immobilized
![Page 33: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/33.jpg)
IV. Conduct of the Strike
Intervention of the Federal Government
• Key was Attorney General Richard Olney
• Olney wired US Attorneys to protect mail
• Federal marshals ordered to protect mail
• Debs publicly offered to assign union work crews to any mail train that did not have a sleeper car attached
![Page 34: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/34.jpg)
Intervention of the Federal Government
• Olney wanted Cleveland to send troops
• Interference with the mail provided the excuse
• June 30, Olney appointed a special federal counsel in Chicago
• His main function was to help railroads secure injunctions against the strike
![Page 35: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/35.jpg)
Intervention of the Federal Government
• Application for injunction immediately granted
• One of the most wide-ranging injunctions ever issued before or since– Debs and other officers enjoined– US Strike Commission– US Supreme Court upheld the injunction later
• Debs decided to flout the injunction
![Page 36: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/36.jpg)
Intervention of the Federal Government
• July 3, Walker and others sent telegram to President requesting troops
• Requested to protect federal property, mail, and enforce injunctions
• Cleveland now ordered federal troops to Chicago
• July 5 Debs offered again to end the boycott if the employer would agree to arbitrate the dispute
![Page 37: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/37.jpg)
Intervention of the Federal Government
• Major conflicts as well in Denver, San Francisco and several other places
• Cleveland issued order against assemblages of any kind in Illinois
• Still widespread public support for strikers
• Judge Grosscup now called into session a grand jury to investigate the “insurrection” against the state of Illinois
![Page 38: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/38.jpg)
IV. Conduct of Strike
• July 8, Debs sent out call for support
• Chicago Trades and Labor Council met
• July 11, city-wide strike attracted only 25,000 supporters
• July 12, AFL Executive met
• Debs then proposed calling the strike off
![Page 39: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/39.jpg)
IV. Conduct of Strike
• July 17, four ARU officers rearrested
• Bail set at $10,000 each
• This time they decided to remain in jail
• July 20 federal troops withdrawn
• By August 1, the railroads had enough men and the trains were running again
• August 2, ARU held meeting and declared the strike over
![Page 40: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/40.jpg)
V. Aftermath
• Widespread firing and blacklisting of strikers
• No one ever prosecuted for violence against the strikers
• Strikers frequently prosecuted• Debs convicted of contempt• Pullman Strike Repression was a Public
Relations Disaster for Cleveland and the Democrats
![Page 41: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/41.jpg)
V. Aftermath
• Debs became a Socialist at the expense of US tax payers
• Eventually became leader of the American Socialist Party
• Ran for President five times
• Labor Day
![Page 42: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/42.jpg)
Next time
• New craft unionism
• American Federation of Labor
• Industrial Workers of the World
![Page 43: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/43.jpg)
Labor in the Gilded Age
Lecture 4
The New Craft Unionism and Workers Before the Turn of the Century
![Page 44: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/44.jpg)
Administrative
• Quiz Reminder
• Mid-term Reminder
• Second Essay Reminder
![Page 45: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/45.jpg)
Review
• Railroad Strike of 1877
• The Haymarket Square Riot - 1886
• The Homestead Strike – 1892
• The Pullman Strike – 1894
• In each case, the government intervened to suppress dissent and to crush the workers
![Page 46: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/46.jpg)
Today
I- The New Craft Unionism
II- Origins and Founding of the American Federation of Labor
III- The World of the Workers, 1880-1900
![Page 47: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/47.jpg)
I- The New Craft Unionism
• Decline of the Knights following the unsuccessful strike against Gould’s railways and Haymarket Square Riot in 1886
• The Cigar Makers’ model of unionism
• Why might cigar makers be among the intellectual leaders of the labor movement?
![Page 48: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/48.jpg)
Cigar Makers Reorganization
• Union reorganized by Adolph Strasser, who became president in 1877
• Aided by his ally, Samuel Gompers
• In 1867 cigar makers had already become the first national union to admit women and admitted African-Americans at same time
![Page 49: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/49.jpg)
Cigar Makers’ New Model
• Centralization• Even more, entire emphasis on a narrow agenda
– Wages– Hours – Working Conditions
• Why did this narrow agenda work?• Adoption of this model seemed to breathe new
life and vitality into the union movement
![Page 50: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/50.jpg)
II- Origins and Founding of the American Federation of Labor
Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions
• Craft union federation founded in 1881 • Gompers chosen to lead it in 1882• Compromise structure that had little impact• 1886 decided to dissolve itself and turn its funds
over to a new organization, the American Federation of Labor
![Page 51: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/51.jpg)
AFL Structure
• A union of union's ‑ individual workers did not belong
• Issued exclusive jurisdiction charters to each constituent union
• Established State Federations and City Centrals
![Page 52: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/52.jpg)
AFL Functions
• Settle jurisdictional disputes
• Adopt limited legislative program
• Assist in supporting strikes ‑ emphasis on economic action ‑ no direct political participation or supporting of candidates
• This policy was called “voluntarism”
![Page 53: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/53.jpg)
Why Did AFL Succeed?
AFL offered what unions wanted
• Coherent political voice in favor of limited objectives
• Protection from dual unionism ‑ an obscenity in the trade union lexicon
• Support in periods of economic conflict without interference
![Page 54: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/54.jpg)
Strengths of AFL
• Its focus on narrow industrial objectives: pure and simple unionism
• Its weakness!
• Why was its weakness a strength?
![Page 55: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/55.jpg)
III- The World of the Workers, 1880-1900
• What did George Pullman have to say about his willingness to use arbitration in the Pullman strike?
• Cannot arbitrate a fact that he knows to be true!
![Page 56: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/56.jpg)
Role of Government
• State legislatures or city councils occasionally tried to intervene on behalf of workers
• Courts responded by invalidating virtually all such laws
• Why?
• More frequently legislatures made strikes or picketing illegal
![Page 57: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/57.jpg)
Injunctions
• Railway strikes of 1877 and 1894 led to heavy reliance on injunctions to deter labor disputes
• Again employers’ property rights paramount
• Injunctions often issued without union even being heard
• Prohibited any activity in support of strike
![Page 58: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/58.jpg)
Working Class
• 1880 more than one million workers under the age of 16
• By 1900 ¾ of the population consisted of workers and their families
• Dramatic growth of immigration contributed to growth of working class and its growing diversity
![Page 59: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/59.jpg)
Working Class
• Growing need of families to send their daughters out to work
• Craft unions largely benefited highly skilled white male workers who already had relatively the highest wages and best conditions
• Segregation of the south– Jim Crow system– Lynching (2500 1885-1900)
![Page 60: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/60.jpg)
Discrimination
• Whites largely excluded African-Americans from their unions and from skilled jobs
• AFL initially tried to encourage or even require unions to admit African-Americans
• Eventually decided this was a hopeless task that would have to wait
![Page 61: Labor in the Gilded Age Lecture 1 The Great Strikes and Demonstrations.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062515/56649c815503460f94939405/html5/thumbnails/61.jpg)
Next Time
• Begin discussion of labor in the progressive era