David Goldberg
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469633626
- eISBN:
- 9781469633633
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469633626.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter charts the growth of the Vulcan Society in both numbers and stature during the postwar era. Led by Wesley Williams’ protégé, Robert Lowery, this second generation of Black firefighters ...
More
This chapter charts the growth of the Vulcan Society in both numbers and stature during the postwar era. Led by Wesley Williams’ protégé, Robert Lowery, this second generation of Black firefighters rapidly expanded the organization’s size, civic engagement, public profile, and influence within the FDNY and Democratic politics by the early 1960s.Less
This chapter charts the growth of the Vulcan Society in both numbers and stature during the postwar era. Led by Wesley Williams’ protégé, Robert Lowery, this second generation of Black firefighters rapidly expanded the organization’s size, civic engagement, public profile, and influence within the FDNY and Democratic politics by the early 1960s.
Traci Parker
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781469648675
- eISBN:
- 9781469648699
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469648675.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
The exceptionality of retail unions governing Macy’s Herald Square in New York City and South Center Department Store in Chicago in advancing black labor and civil rights is the subject of chapter ...
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The exceptionality of retail unions governing Macy’s Herald Square in New York City and South Center Department Store in Chicago in advancing black labor and civil rights is the subject of chapter three. New York and Chicago locals successfully linked worker and consumer rights and improved African Americans’ social and economic conditions, even propelling some of them into the middle class. Also, in acting as both labor and civil rights organizations, these unions expanded views on fair employment in this industry beyond bread-and-butter issues and promoted equal employment and promotion. These unions point to the nature and direction of the black freedom struggle, albeit without the presence of strong unionism.Less
The exceptionality of retail unions governing Macy’s Herald Square in New York City and South Center Department Store in Chicago in advancing black labor and civil rights is the subject of chapter three. New York and Chicago locals successfully linked worker and consumer rights and improved African Americans’ social and economic conditions, even propelling some of them into the middle class. Also, in acting as both labor and civil rights organizations, these unions expanded views on fair employment in this industry beyond bread-and-butter issues and promoted equal employment and promotion. These unions point to the nature and direction of the black freedom struggle, albeit without the presence of strong unionism.
David Goldberg
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469633626
- eISBN:
- 9781469633633
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469633626.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter examines how Black working-class activism and the political ascendancy of Fiorello La Guardia created a small window of opportunity to join the FDNY that was seized by a small number of ...
More
This chapter examines how Black working-class activism and the political ascendancy of Fiorello La Guardia created a small window of opportunity to join the FDNY that was seized by a small number of Black New Yorkers during the late 1930s and early 1940s. While relatively small, this influx of Black firefighters sparked racial backlash from the department’s overwhelming white majority, which attempted to formally institutionalize racism and racial segregation within the department. To combat this, New York’s Black firefighters formed the nation’s first Black firefighters’ organization, The Vulcan Society, in the early 1940s. The group emerged out of, and was a part of, the Black working-class oriented Black united front that developed in New York during the 1930s and early 1940s. Like similar Black labor organizations of the time, the Vulcan Society joined workplace and community-based struggles, and successfully mobilized to prevent the formal segregation of the FDNY.Less
This chapter examines how Black working-class activism and the political ascendancy of Fiorello La Guardia created a small window of opportunity to join the FDNY that was seized by a small number of Black New Yorkers during the late 1930s and early 1940s. While relatively small, this influx of Black firefighters sparked racial backlash from the department’s overwhelming white majority, which attempted to formally institutionalize racism and racial segregation within the department. To combat this, New York’s Black firefighters formed the nation’s first Black firefighters’ organization, The Vulcan Society, in the early 1940s. The group emerged out of, and was a part of, the Black working-class oriented Black united front that developed in New York during the 1930s and early 1940s. Like similar Black labor organizations of the time, the Vulcan Society joined workplace and community-based struggles, and successfully mobilized to prevent the formal segregation of the FDNY.
