Black Power at Work: Community Control, Affirmative Action, and the Construction Industry

David A. Goldberg, Trevor Griffey

Cornell University Press, 2010 - Political Science - 265 pages

Black Power at Work chronicles the history of direct action campaigns to open up the construction industry to black workers in the 1960s and 1970s. The book's case studies of local movements in Brooklyn, Newark, the Bay Area, Detroit, Chicago, and Seattle show how struggles against racism in the construction industry shaped the emergence of Black Power politics outside the U.S. South. In the process, "community control" of the construction industry—especially government War on Poverty and post-rebellion urban reconstruction projects— became central to community organizing for black economic self-determination and political autonomy.

The history of Black Power's community organizing tradition shines a light on more recent debates about job training and placement for unemployed, underemployed, and underrepresented workers. Politicians responded to Black Power protests at federal construction projects by creating modern affirmative action and minority set-aside programs in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but these programs relied on "voluntary" compliance by contractors and unions, government enforcement was inadequate, and they were not connected to jobs programs. Forty years later, the struggle to have construction jobs serve as a pathway out of poverty for inner city residents remains an unfinished part of the struggle for racial justice and labor union reform in the United States.

Contributors: Erik S. Gellman, Roosevelt University; David Goldberg, Wayne State University; Trevor Griffey, University of Washington; Brian Purnell, Fordham University; Julia Rabig, Boston University; John J. Rosen, University of Illinois at Chicago

What people are saying

User Review -

I am G. L. Matthews, author of the unpublished book; "From to the Ghettoes to The Promised Land".
I have not read the book, "Black Power at Work". But, I wanted to write this review to say, even though I was a part of the Black Power Movement, my several trips to the Continent of Africa left me praising the work of the late, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. For one who was a part of one of the more notable Black Power Organizations in the united States and New Africa; the flood of praise for the non-violent movement and it's leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, led me to focus on the Civil Rights movement in my writing.
But, I woke up early this morning to look up, who started the movement for Affirmative Action. Through that search I found this book, "Black Power at Work". I began writing my book, "From the Ghettoes to the Promised Land" in 2011. It is now the eve of 2019. Poor Black Power, has been stumped into the ground so long and so hard that, even with my background, I had began to down-play the accomplishments of that movement. I Thank God for the young people, who are beginning to stir from the long sleep. I can only hope and pray that, it will not take another string of police shootings and hangings of black people across the United States to keep the flame of freedom alive.
I AM G.L. Matthews, former R.N.A. 11 

Contents

• Construction: 23
• Construction: 48
• Work for Me Also Means Work for the Community: 68
• Community Control of Construction: 90
• The Chicago Coalition: 112
• The Blacks Should Not Be Administering: 134
• Association and Title VII Community Organizing: 161
• White Male Identity Politics the Building: 189
• Notes: 209
• About the Contributors: 255

About the author

David Goldberg is Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at Wayne State University. Trevor Griffey is a PhD candidate in U.S. History at the University of Washington.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Black Power at Work: Community Control, Affirmative Action, and the Construction Industry; Cornell paperbacks
• Editors: David A. Goldberg, Trevor Griffey
• Publisher: Cornell University Press, 2010
• ISBN: 0801474310, 9780801474316
• Length: 265 pages
• Subjects: Political Science / Labor & Industrial Relations; Social Science / Ethnic Studies / American / African American & Black Studies; Technology & Engineering / Construction / General