Top 10 Examples of Racism in History of the American Labor Movement

3. Northern Construction vs. Immigrating Black Southerners

During the late 1920’s and into the 1930’s, in an attempt to move away from oppressive Jim Crow laws in the South, African-American construction workers moved North. When they arrived and in order to give themselves a foothold in the market place, they offered better quality service at a lower price than their white counterparts. In retaliation, white construction laborers formed a union to exclude the African-Americans from business.