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

6. Leader of AFL Samuel Gompers (1850-1924)

During his time as the head of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), Samuel Gompers was on the record as being an open racist. Gompers was the creator of the labor movements anti-immigration policies and also had a knack for saying incendiary things about the multiple races like the Chinese and African-Americans. These comments would often preventing many from wanting to be a part of the AFL.

About the Chinese he had said that, “Superior whites had to exclude the inferior Asiatic (Asians), by law, or if necessary, by force of arms.”

On African-Americans, Gompers thoughts were that they became a “convenient whip placed in the hands of the employers to cow the white man.” Essentially saying you could use blacks to organize whites for fear of losing their jobs to them.