Steve Early
Needleman assembled a group of past and present USWA activists, male and female, for a free-wheeling discussion of their experiences. The participants noted that blacks were not drawn to the union simply to gain rights on the job but also as an 'organization that would protect their social and political rights.'.
March 2004 Choice
This book describes the struggle of black union activists to secure civil rights in steel mills in the Calumet region near Chicago. Needleman (labor studies, Indiana Univ. Northwest) begins with biographical sketches of five African American union leaders, whose experiences covered the period from WWI to the late 20th Century. She then analyzes the efforts of black militants within the United Steelworkers of America, which culminated in the Consent Decree negotiated in 1974 by the USWA, employers, and the federal government... Overall, it is a valuable historical study of race and labor relations in the US. Summing Up: Highly Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections.
Tim Shellberg
Needleman, a professor of labor studies at Indiana University Northwest, takes a look at the struggles and victories of African-American steelworkers who worked in the region mills and factories in the first half of the 20th century. The 242-page book takes a look at the trials and tribulations of five former workers and, through them, also presents a history of African Americans unheard until now.
Jerry Davich
Yes, Needleman said, workers like Comer would meet, drink, and play cards with other workers. But they always shared the miseries of their jobs and what was needed to change that. Needleman, who began collecting information for the book in 1984, said this region's labor movement has lost touch with the people and communities that once stoked its fire. Today, with only 13 percent of American workers being unionized, the movement is clearly being doused from many sides, she said. 'Everyone has dropped the ball.'.
From the Publisher
This remarkable book reveals the hidden history of long-forgotten black steelworkers and their seminal role in the struggle for union democracy and workers' rights on the shop floor. Ruth Needleman's book is a critical text in the history of black industrial workers' struggles and their contributions to working people regardless of where they may have toiled.
Bill Fletcher
Inspiring and thought-provoking, Ruth Needleman's book reveals an often overlooked segment of black working-class history. This compelling analysis provides a foundation for considering strategies of labor renewal and black worker power.
Robin D. G. Kelley
Black Freedom Fighters in Steel is a beautiful story of five black union organizers, long-distance runners who were indispensable to building the steel workers union as well as the civil rights movement in northwest Indiana. And they never stopped struggling, despite having to battle generations of white racism and intransigence in their own union. Ruth Needleman proves once again that African American workers have consistently sustained the most inclusive, radical vision of working class solidarity the U.S. labor movement has ever known.
