Podcast appearances and mentions of William P Jones

This final episode of Organize the Unorganized is devoted to key lessons of the CIO moment. All of the guests on this program were asked about this basic question, and we try to represent all of their answers on this episode. The negative lessons, points where guests were keen to note the differences between the 30s and the present moment, focused on the changed economic situation and the issue of labor law. The more positive lessons pertained to union democracy, overcoming divisions in the working class, mass organizing, raising expectations, and seizing the moment. Guests in order of appearance: Dorothy Sue Cobble, Professor Emerita of History and Labor Studies at Rutgers University; David Brody, Professor Emeritus of History at UC-Davis; Ruth Milkman, Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center; Ahmed White, Nicholas Rosenbaum Professor of Law at the University of Colorado-Boulder; Lizabeth Cohen, Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies at Harvard University; Robert Cherny, Professor Emeritus of History at San Francisco State University; Jeremy Brecher, Labor Historian; Nelson Lichtenstein, Professor of History at UC-Santa Barbara; Bryan Palmer, Professor Emeritus of History at Trent University; William P. Jones, Professor of History at the University of Minnesota; Rick Halpern, Professor of American Studies at the University of Toronto; Peter Cole, Professor of History at Western Illinois University; Erik Loomis, Professor of History at the University of Rhode Island; Steve Fraser, Labor Historian Clips in order of appearance: “David Dubinsky speaks at the 25th anniversary celebration of his ILGWU presidency, Madison Square Garden, New York, 1957, Part 2,” David Dubinsky Audio-visual Recordings, Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library, https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/KCL05780-002av.html (37:32); “Walter Reuther and the UAW,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4n76yNizs8 (38:03); “A Conversation with Harry Bridges,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EFZOj7_1qI (39:31); John L. Lewis, “Industrial Democracy Speech, WEAF,” The John L. Lewis Papers, Wisconsin Historical Society (493A/39) (39:46) Songs in order of appearance: The Union Boys, “Hold the Fort,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj4tNpjr9c4 (12:33); “On the Line,” “Tom Glazer Sings Favorite American Union Songs circa 1948,” United Packinghouse, Food, and Allied Workers Records, 1937-1968, Wisconsin Historical Society (Audio 375A/78), https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=wiarchives;id=navbarbrowselink;cginame=findaid-idx;cc=wiarchives;view=reslist;subview=standard;didno=uw-whs-mss00118;focusrgn=C02;byte=412854728 (19:07); “We Shall Not Be Moved,” The Original Talking Union and Other Unions Songs with the Almanac Singers with Pete Seeger and Chorus, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3cJ7GVoOdA (27:56); Tracy Newman, “It Could Be a Wonderful World,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-yIs5GICs8 (42:33) Theme music by Drake Tyler.

This penultimate episode of Organize the Unorganized concludes the story of the CIO. We cover first the communist purge in the late 1940s, as well as Operation Dixie, the failed campaign to organize the south. We then get to merger with the AFL in 1955, and the afterlife of the CIO in the Industrial Union Department and its contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. Guests in order of appearance: Lizabeth Cohen, Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies at Harvard University; James Young, Professor Emeritus of History at Edinboro University; Melvyn Dubofsky, Professor Emeritus of History and Sociology at Binghamton University; Erik Loomis, Professor of History at the University of Rhode Island; David Brody, Professor Emeritus of History at UC-Davis; Jeremy Brecher, Labor Historian; William P. Jones, Professor of History at the University of Minnesota; Nelson Lichtenstein, Professor of History at UC-Santa Barbara; Lisa Phillips, Associate Professor of History at Indiana State University; Steve Fraser, Labor Historian; Ruth Milkman, Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center; Dorothy Sue Cobble, Professor Emerita of History and Labor Studies at Rutgers University Clips in order of appearance: “Bill Strength Congress of Industrial Organizations Program,” Part 11, “Congress of Industrial Organizations and Americanism” (1524A/28), in “Textile Workers Union of America Records, 1915-1994,” Wisconsin Historical Society, https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=wiarchives;view=reslist;subview=standard;didno=uw-whs-us00129a (0:00); “James Matles - 1973, District 10 meeting, Lake Arrowhead, CA,” UE History, https://soundcloud.com/user-141302221/james-matles-1973-district-10-meeting-lake-arrowhead-ca (9:41); “Congress of Industrial Organizations convention debate on the expulsion of the communists, circa 4 November 1949” (1524A/91&92), in “Textile Workers Union of America Records, 1915-1994,” Wisconsin Historical Society, https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=wiarchives;view=reslist;subview=standard;didno=uw-whs-us00129a (19:40, 20:14, 21:49, 22:33, 23:53); “Martin Luther King, AFL-CIO Convention 4 Dec 11, 1961,” AFL-CIO archive at the University of Maryland (35:30); “John F. Kennedy's remarks to a labor group, 24 September, 1963” (375A/41), in “United Packinghouse, Food, and Allied Workers Records, 1937-1968,” Wisconsin Historical Society, https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=wiarchives;id=navbarbrowselink;cginame=findaid-idx;cc=wiarchives;view=reslist;subview=standard;didno=uw-whs-mss00118;focusrgn=C02;byte=412854728 (39:50); “UAW Audiovisual Collection: 1955 Documentary on the CIO,” Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University (46:40) Theme music by Drake Tyler.

How was it that the CIO was finally able to make good on the decades-old dream of industrial unionism? In this episode, we outline four factors that were the keys to the CIO's success. First, there was a political opportunity that the CIO took advantage of. Second, there were militant and disruptive tactics employed that were effective given that political opportunity. Third, there was the great energy and commitment of the Left as channeled toward the stable end of collective bargaining. And finally, there was what podcast guest Lizabeth Cohen has called the “culture of unity” bred by the CIO. The first factor was covered in Episode 2, and the second in Episode 3, and so we won't rehash that material here. This episode is thus focused on the latter two: the influence of the Left and the culture of unity. Guests in order of appearance: Dorothy Sue Cobble, Distinguished Professor Emerita of History and Labor Studies at Rutgers University; Steve Fraser, Labor Historian; David Brody, Professor Emeritus of History at UC-Davis; Jeremy Brecher, Labor Historian; Ahmed White, Nicholas Rosenbaum Professor of Law at the University of Colorado-Boulder; Lizabeth Cohen, Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies at Harvard University; Nelson Lichtenstein, Professor of History at UC-Santa Barbara; Erik Loomis, Professor of History at the University of Rhode Island; William P. Jones, Professor of History at the University of Minnesota; Lisa Phillips, Associate Professor of History at Indiana State University; Rick Halpern, Professor of American Studies at the University of Toronto Clips in order of appearance: “David Dubinsky speaks at the 25th anniversary celebration of his ILGWU presidency, Madison Square Garden, New York, 1957, Part 2,” David Dubinsky Audio-visual Recordings, Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library, https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/KCL05780-002av.html (48:15) Songs in order of appearance: Paul Robeson, “Ballad for Americans,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHCQGQdeL68 (0:00); Joe Glazer, “I Ain't No Stranger Now,” Textile Voices, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AePjBRgEuBI (32:40) Theme music by Drake Tyler.

There have been many moments of labor upsurge in America, including the influx of members into the Knights of Labor in 1886, the dramatic growth of unions during and in the immediate aftermath of World War I, and the great public sector unionism surge of the 1960s and 70s, but none matches the scale of the 1930s, when millions of workers were unionized under the aegis of the great labor federation, the Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO. If we're looking to get millions of private-sector workers into the labor movement, there's really one time to look to, and that is the ascendant period of the CIO. In Organize the Unorganized, a forthcoming podcast from the Center for Work & Democracy at Arizona State University and Jacobin Magazine, we'll be telling the story of the CIO through the voices of prominent labor historians, including Jeremy Brecher, Robert Cherny, Dorothy Sue Cobble, Lizabeth Cohen, David Brody, Melvyn Dubofsky, Steve Fraser, Rick Halpern, William P. Jones, Nelson Lichtenstein, Erik Loomis, Ruth Milkman, Daniel Nelson, Bryan Palmer, Lisa Phillips, Ahmed White, and Jim Young. These interviews have been spliced together into an account of the rise, importance, and legacy of the CIO. In addition to being released on soundcloud.com/organizetheunorganized, these episodes will also be released on Jacobin magazine's podcast feed. Jacobin will also be publishing the individual interview transcriptions while the podcast is running.

Bayard Rustin was born a Quaker in Pennsylvania and became an advocate of non-violent resistance in the civil rights movement. He was openly gay at a time when most people in his position would have kept knowledge of their homosexuality secret. He was a brilliant organizer. Bayard Rustin was also a socialist who called for a sweeping economic rights program designed to pull all poor Americans out of poverty, rather than narrowly focusing on race. But you wouldn't learn the socialist aspects of Rustin's philosophy and activism from watching the new Netflix biopic "Rustin," which was executive-produced by the Obamas. In this episode, historian William P. Jones discusses the Rustin that doesn't appear on screen, a man dedicated to economic justice who also refused to publicly condemn the Vietnam War. 

A five-day, 40-hour workweek is the norm for many American workers. But why? What if instead of five work days, we had four? It's an idea that's gaining traction. A recent pilot program in the U.K. tested four-day workweeks with fewer hours than the standard 40. The study showed positive results across the board among employees and employers.MPR News host Angela Davis spoke to three experts talk about the possibility and promise of a shorter workweek. Guests:Chris Farrell is senior economics contributor at Marketplace, American Public Media's nationally syndicated public radio business and economic program. He's also a senior economics contributor at MPR News.William P. Jones is a professor of history at the University of Minnesota who studies and writes about organized labor, unions, racial inequality and the history of the Civil Rights movement.Krista Lynn Minnotte is a professor of sociology at University of North Dakota and the co-editor in chief of “The Social Science Journal.” Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.  Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.    

From white-collar executives to mail carriers, public workers meet the needs of the entire nation. In Public Workers in Service of America: A Reader (U Illinois Press, 2023), Frederick W. Gooding Jr. and Eric S. Yellin provide an edited collection of new research on this understudied workforce:  Part One begins in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth century to explore how questions of race, class, and gender shaped public workers, their workplaces, and their place in American democracy. In Part Two, essayists examine race and gender discrimination while revealing the subtle contemporary forms of marginalization that keep Black men and Black and white women underpaid and overlooked for promotion. The historic labor actions detailed in Part Three illuminate how city employees organized not only for better pay and working conditions but to seek recognition from city officials, the public, and the national labor movement. Part Four focuses on nurses and teachers to address the thorny question of whether certain groups deserve premium pay for their irreplaceable work and sacrifices or if serving the greater good is a reward unto itself. Contributors: Eileen Boris, Cathleen D. Cahill, Frederick W. Gooding Jr., William P. Jones, Francis Ryan, Jon Shelton, Joseph E. Slater, Katherine Turk, Eric S. Yellin, and Amy Zanoni. Stephen Pimpare is a Senior Fellow at the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/public-policy

From white-collar executives to mail carriers, public workers meet the needs of the entire nation. In Public Workers in Service of America: A Reader (U Illinois Press, 2023), Frederick W. Gooding Jr. and Eric S. Yellin provide an edited collection of new research on this understudied workforce:  Part One begins in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth century to explore how questions of race, class, and gender shaped public workers, their workplaces, and their place in American democracy. In Part Two, essayists examine race and gender discrimination while revealing the subtle contemporary forms of marginalization that keep Black men and Black and white women underpaid and overlooked for promotion. The historic labor actions detailed in Part Three illuminate how city employees organized not only for better pay and working conditions but to seek recognition from city officials, the public, and the national labor movement. Part Four focuses on nurses and teachers to address the thorny question of whether certain groups deserve premium pay for their irreplaceable work and sacrifices or if serving the greater good is a reward unto itself. Contributors: Eileen Boris, Cathleen D. Cahill, Frederick W. Gooding Jr., William P. Jones, Francis Ryan, Jon Shelton, Joseph E. Slater, Katherine Turk, Eric S. Yellin, and Amy Zanoni. Stephen Pimpare is a Senior Fellow at the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

From white-collar executives to mail carriers, public workers meet the needs of the entire nation. In Public Workers in Service of America: A Reader (U Illinois Press, 2023), Frederick W. Gooding Jr. and Eric S. Yellin provide an edited collection of new research on this understudied workforce:  Part One begins in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth century to explore how questions of race, class, and gender shaped public workers, their workplaces, and their place in American democracy. In Part Two, essayists examine race and gender discrimination while revealing the subtle contemporary forms of marginalization that keep Black men and Black and white women underpaid and overlooked for promotion. The historic labor actions detailed in Part Three illuminate how city employees organized not only for better pay and working conditions but to seek recognition from city officials, the public, and the national labor movement. Part Four focuses on nurses and teachers to address the thorny question of whether certain groups deserve premium pay for their irreplaceable work and sacrifices or if serving the greater good is a reward unto itself. Contributors: Eileen Boris, Cathleen D. Cahill, Frederick W. Gooding Jr., William P. Jones, Francis Ryan, Jon Shelton, Joseph E. Slater, Katherine Turk, Eric S. Yellin, and Amy Zanoni. Stephen Pimpare is a Senior Fellow at the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

From white-collar executives to mail carriers, public workers meet the needs of the entire nation. In Public Workers in Service of America: A Reader (U Illinois Press, 2023), Frederick W. Gooding Jr. and Eric S. Yellin provide an edited collection of new research on this understudied workforce:  Part One begins in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth century to explore how questions of race, class, and gender shaped public workers, their workplaces, and their place in American democracy. In Part Two, essayists examine race and gender discrimination while revealing the subtle contemporary forms of marginalization that keep Black men and Black and white women underpaid and overlooked for promotion. The historic labor actions detailed in Part Three illuminate how city employees organized not only for better pay and working conditions but to seek recognition from city officials, the public, and the national labor movement. Part Four focuses on nurses and teachers to address the thorny question of whether certain groups deserve premium pay for their irreplaceable work and sacrifices or if serving the greater good is a reward unto itself. Contributors: Eileen Boris, Cathleen D. Cahill, Frederick W. Gooding Jr., William P. Jones, Francis Ryan, Jon Shelton, Joseph E. Slater, Katherine Turk, Eric S. Yellin, and Amy Zanoni. Stephen Pimpare is a Senior Fellow at the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science

From white-collar executives to mail carriers, public workers meet the needs of the entire nation. In Public Workers in Service of America: A Reader (U Illinois Press, 2023), Frederick W. Gooding Jr. and Eric S. Yellin provide an edited collection of new research on this understudied workforce:  Part One begins in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth century to explore how questions of race, class, and gender shaped public workers, their workplaces, and their place in American democracy. In Part Two, essayists examine race and gender discrimination while revealing the subtle contemporary forms of marginalization that keep Black men and Black and white women underpaid and overlooked for promotion. The historic labor actions detailed in Part Three illuminate how city employees organized not only for better pay and working conditions but to seek recognition from city officials, the public, and the national labor movement. Part Four focuses on nurses and teachers to address the thorny question of whether certain groups deserve premium pay for their irreplaceable work and sacrifices or if serving the greater good is a reward unto itself. Contributors: Eileen Boris, Cathleen D. Cahill, Frederick W. Gooding Jr., William P. Jones, Francis Ryan, Jon Shelton, Joseph E. Slater, Katherine Turk, Eric S. Yellin, and Amy Zanoni. Stephen Pimpare is a Senior Fellow at the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

From white-collar executives to mail carriers, public workers meet the needs of the entire nation. In Public Workers in Service of America: A Reader (U Illinois Press, 2023), Frederick W. Gooding Jr. and Eric S. Yellin provide an edited collection of new research on this understudied workforce:  Part One begins in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth century to explore how questions of race, class, and gender shaped public workers, their workplaces, and their place in American democracy. In Part Two, essayists examine race and gender discrimination while revealing the subtle contemporary forms of marginalization that keep Black men and Black and white women underpaid and overlooked for promotion. The historic labor actions detailed in Part Three illuminate how city employees organized not only for better pay and working conditions but to seek recognition from city officials, the public, and the national labor movement. Part Four focuses on nurses and teachers to address the thorny question of whether certain groups deserve premium pay for their irreplaceable work and sacrifices or if serving the greater good is a reward unto itself. Contributors: Eileen Boris, Cathleen D. Cahill, Frederick W. Gooding Jr., William P. Jones, Francis Ryan, Jon Shelton, Joseph E. Slater, Katherine Turk, Eric S. Yellin, and Amy Zanoni. Stephen Pimpare is a Senior Fellow at the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

From white-collar executives to mail carriers, public workers meet the needs of the entire nation. In Public Workers in Service of America: A Reader (U Illinois Press, 2023), Frederick W. Gooding Jr. and Eric S. Yellin provide an edited collection of new research on this understudied workforce:  Part One begins in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth century to explore how questions of race, class, and gender shaped public workers, their workplaces, and their place in American democracy. In Part Two, essayists examine race and gender discrimination while revealing the subtle contemporary forms of marginalization that keep Black men and Black and white women underpaid and overlooked for promotion. The historic labor actions detailed in Part Three illuminate how city employees organized not only for better pay and working conditions but to seek recognition from city officials, the public, and the national labor movement. Part Four focuses on nurses and teachers to address the thorny question of whether certain groups deserve premium pay for their irreplaceable work and sacrifices or if serving the greater good is a reward unto itself. Contributors: Eileen Boris, Cathleen D. Cahill, Frederick W. Gooding Jr., William P. Jones, Francis Ryan, Jon Shelton, Joseph E. Slater, Katherine Turk, Eric S. Yellin, and Amy Zanoni. Stephen Pimpare is a Senior Fellow at the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The massive gathering of Americans on the National Mall sixty years ago, on August 28, 1963, is best remembered by the final few minutes of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s soaring call for racial harmony, "I Have A Dream." But there was much more to the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In this episode, historians Thomas Jackson and William P. Jones recover aspects of Black intellectual history and a radical economic agenda that are invisible in sanitized retrospectives on the revolution of ‘63. (Note: The source of the Kennedy audio tape on civil rights is the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, excerpted by Thomas Jackson).

A five-day, 40-hour workweek is the norm for many American workers. But why? What if instead of five work days, we had four?  The idea of a four-day work week is gaining more and more traction. A recent pilot program in the U.K. tested four-day workweeks with fewer hours than the standard 40. The study showed positive results across the board for both employees and employers. MPR News host Angela Davis talks with three experts about the possibility and promise of a shorter workweek.  Guests: Chris Farrell is senior economics contributor at Marketplace, American Public Media's nationally syndicated public radio business and economic programs. He's also a senior economics contributor at MPR News. William P. Jones  is a professor of history at the University of Minnesota who studies and writes about organized labor, unions, racial inequality and the history of the Civil Rights movement. Krista Lynn Minnotte is a professor of sociology at University of North Dakota and the co-editor in chief of “The Social Science Journal.” She has a Ph.D. in sociology.

(Originally aired February 17, 2019) On this week's show: William P. Jones on “The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom, and the Forgotten History Of Civil Rights,” plus a 1961 memo to George Meany about the Freedom Rides, and a confidential “report on union racial progress.” Interviews by Chris Garlock and Alan Wierdak. Sweet Honey In The Rock - Eye On The Prize "CORE: Freedom Ride," 1961 Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Produced & engineered by Chris Garlock and Patrick Dixon.  

Thousands took to the streets of Washington DC yesterday to commemorate the 58th anniversary of the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. This year the focus was voting rights, with a new generation of activists denouncing voter suppression and demanding fair access to the vote for all, insisting that the vision Martin Luther King expressed in his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 be deferred no longer. On today's show, our 2019 interview with professor William P. Jones, vice president of the Labor and Working Class History Association, and author of “The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom, and the Forgotten History of Civil Rights.” And, on Labor History in 2:00, Defense Industry Workers Strike on Eve of World War Two. Produced by Chris Garlock. To contribute a labor history item, email laborhistorytoday@gmail.com Labor History Today is produced by the Metro Washington Council's Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO #VotingRightsMarch #WeMarchOn

There were only 18 days last year that did not see a police officer kill a civilian in this country. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Walter Wallace Jr, Daniel Prude, and Rayshard Brooks, were among the 1,127 people killed by police last year. And we know that Black people are more than three times as likely to be killed during a police encounter as their white peers. A year after the murder of George Floyd, systemic, transformative change is still desperately needed at every level of government, but too often police unions and their lobbying efforts obstruct that change. Joining us today to talk about all this is Dr. William P. Jones, a history professor at the University of Minnesota and the president of the Labor and Working-Class History Association, whose work focuses on the relationship between race and class, as well as on the history of unions and organizing in the U.S.

Please join us for a History Book Club virtual event from the University of Minnesota's Department of History, the Ramsey County Historical Society, the University of Minnesota's African American and African Studies Department and the Labor and Working History Association. This event features a discussion of "Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America" by Joe Trotter. Joe Trotter (PhD ‘80), Giant Eagle Professor of History at Carnegie Mellon University, will discuss his book with moderator William Jones, Professor of History at the University of Minnesota. About the book: Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America, University of California Press (January 2019) From the ongoing issues of poverty, health, housing and employment to the recent upsurge of lethal police-community relations, the black working class stands at the center of perceptions of social and racial conflict today. Journalists and public policy analysts often discuss the black poor as “consumers” rather than “producers,” as “takers” rather than “givers,” and as “liabilities” instead of “assets.” In his engrossing new history, Workers on Arrival, Joe William Trotter, Jr. refutes these perceptions by charting the black working class's vast contributions to the making of America. Covering the last four hundred years since Africans were first brought to Virginia in 1619, Trotter traces black workers' complicated journey from the transatlantic slave trade through the American Century to the demise of the industrial order in the 21st century. At the center of this compelling, fast-paced narrative are the actual experiences of these African American men and women. A dynamic and vital history of remarkable contributions despite repeated setbacks, Workers on Arrival expands our understanding of America's economic and industrial growth, its cities, ideas, and institutions, and the real challenges confronting black urban communities today. About the author: Joe William Trotter, Jr. is the Giant Eagle Professor of History and Social Justice and past History Department Chair at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is also the Director and Founder of Carnegie Mellon's Center for Africanamerican Urban Studies and the Economy, President Elect of the Urban History Association and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Professor Trotter received his BA degree from Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Minnesota. He is currently working on a study of African American urban life since the Atlantic slave trade. About the moderator William P. Jones is a professor of history at the University of Minnesota and president of the Labor and Working Class History Association. He currently serves as the director of graduate studies for the History Department. An expert on race and labor in the twentieth-century United States, he is author of two award-winning books, The Tribe of Black Ulysses: African American Lumber Workers in the Jim Crow South (2005) and The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom, and the Forgotten History of Civil Rights (2013). Jones has been a guest on the PBS Newshour, NPR's “The Takeaway,” and Democracy Now! He has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Nation, and other publications. He is currently writing a book on public employees and the transformation of the U.S. economy after World War II. Before coming to the University of Minnesota in 2016, Dr. Jones taught at the University of Wisconsin and Rutgers University.

Guest speakers include Michael Moskow, Matthew Friend, Julius Givens, William P. Jones, Kate Levine, Benjamin Levin, and Robert Harris.

William P. Jones of Univ of Minnesota on March on Washington. Christopher Palmer of Massachusetts Institue of Technology on rent control. Phillip Phan of Johns Hopkins Univ on telehealth. Katherine Kinzler of Univ of Chicago on her book "How You Say It: Why You Talk the Way You Do and What It Says About You". Farzan Sasangohar of Texas A&M Univ on how architecture can help with PTSD.

Economic Justice and the forgotten history of the March on Washington. The origins of right wing populism and the future of the GOP. Plus, Bill Press continues his series on the growing threat of Donald Trump’s mental state.   How Black unionists organized the 1963 March for Jobs and Freedom.  How Republicans used organized money and organized outrage to become the party of plutocrats. Plus, Bill Press on why psychiatrists are saying Trump is unfit to hold office and cannot change.   William P. Jones William P. Jones has written extensively on the history of labor unions and race. In his highly acclaimed book on the 1963 March on Washington, he reminds us of the critical role of Black trade unionists in making that historic event happen.   Jacob Hacker In his newest book, Jacob Hacker, and his co-author Paul Pierson, offer a groundbreaking account of the dangerous marriage of plutocratic economic priorities and right-wing populism, and how it threatens American democracy.   Bill Press Bill Press with contributors to the New York Times bestseller The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump discuss the pathologies that control Donald Trump and put American democracy at risk. If you'd like to hear the entire interview, visit BillPressPods.com.    Jim Hightower Trump’s bassackwards government

William P. Jones on “The Tribe of Black Ulysses: African American Lumber Workers in the Jim Crow South,” plus a letter from Eleanor Roosevelt to AFL-CIO urging the formation of a “Committee on Inquiry Into the Administration of Justice in the Freedom Struggle.” Interviews by Chris Garlock and Alan Wierdak. 2020 Bonus: Patrick Dixon on Chaplin’s “City Lights” as a labor film. (Show originally released 2/24/2019)

William P. Jones on “The Tribe of Black Ulysses: African American Lumber Workers in the Jim Crow South,” plus a letter from Eleanor Roosevelt to AFL-CIO urging the formation of a “Committee on Inquiry Into the Administration of Justice in the Freedom Struggle.” Interviews by Chris Garlock and Alan Wierdak. 2020 Bonus: Patrick Dixon on Chaplin’s “City Lights” as a labor film. (Show originally released 2/24/2019)

On this week’s show: William P. Jones on “The Tribe of Black Ulysses: African American Lumber Workers in the Jim Crow South,” plus a letter from Eleanor Roosevelt to AFL-CIO urging the formation of a “Committee on Inquiry Into the Administration of Justice in the Freedom Struggle.” Interviews by Chris Garlock and Alan Wierdak. Oh Freedom! - The Golden Gospel Singers https://youtu.be/veiJLhXdwn8 Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Produced & engineered by Chris Garlock and Patrick Dixon.

On this week’s show: William P. Jones on “The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom, and the Forgotten History Of Civil Rights,” plus a 1961 memo to George Meany about the Freedom Rides, and a confidential “report on union racial progress.” Interviews by Chris Garlock and Alan Wierdak. Sweet Honey In The Rock - Eye On The Prize https://youtu.be/D_tcZAqQUAg "CORE: Freedom Ride," 1961 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWpdCSerchnTGCWu3vRKSyA/featured?ab_channel=HornbakeLibrary Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Produced & engineered by Chris Garlock and Patrick Dixon.

Sep. 20, 2013. The National Book Festival Gala 2013 from the Library of Congress featured presentations by Don DeLillo, Cristina Garcia, Jon Klassen, William P. Jones and Juan Felipe Herrera. For transcript, captions, and more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=6206

William P. Jones appears at the 2013 Library of Congress National Book Festival, Sep. 22, 2013. Speaker Biography: William P. Jones is an associate professor of history at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He is the author of "The Tribe of Black Ulysses: African American Lumber Workers in the Jim Crow South," about the previously ignored story of African American men employed in the lumber industry in the Southern United States. The book received the H.L. Mitchell Award of the Southern Historical Association in 2006. Jones's articles have appeared in The Nation, New Labor Forum and the Journal of Urban History. His new book is "The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom and the Forgotten History of Civil Rights." For transcript, captions, and more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=6145

Sheryl Cannady from the Library of Congress speaks with William P. Jones, who will appear at the 2013 National Book Festival on September 22, 2013, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.