James Boggs - Black Heritage, Beyond the White Horizon (1968)

Speaker 1: Our current topic, depression, blacks, and the labor movement. Today's subject, Beyond the White Horizon with James Boggs. Mr. Boggs is an auto worker from Detroit. He's also the author of the American Revolution and the Italian language edition of Working Class and Racism, the American edition to be published later this year. And now, Mr. Boggs.

James Boggs: In my first presentation, I emphasize how blacks during the 30s were ready for jobs at any price, no matter how dangerous, no matter how humiliating, and no matter how dirty. Today, I am going to trace the rapid development as a result of World War II, the Korean War, automation, the black revolt, to the new breed of the young blacks. By a new breed, I mean a breed of blacks whose chief concern is not a job, but is a struggle against the white racist management, the white racist union structure in the union, and for power in the plant to make the plant relevant to the needs of black people. As I pointed out in that first presentation, the Union did not resolve the hind problems of blacks, that it was World War II and the needs of the war industry, plus the March on Washington, which had been organized by A. Philip Randolph, that gave blacks the first opportunity to go and work into the industry. Now, all of us know that unlike all other countries, as it developed from the agriculture to an industrial country, the workers who had formerly been in agriculture simply moved up into the industrial sector. And in the United States, however, the pattern had always been to leave black in the South to do the work in agriculture and bring in immigrant labor from the Europe or Eastern Europe. However, with the ending of the ordinary productive arena and the beginning of war production, blacks, wave after wave, came north by whatever modes of transportation that was possible. Now simultaneously with this wave of blacks come also wave after wave of white Southerners. Because with World War II now going on, it was impossible for immigrant labor to come from Europe to fill this vacuum which traditionally they had always filled in industry. Plus, because of the accumulated unemployment that was left over from the Great Depression, because there were still 11 million people unemployed when World War II took place. And through all the mobilization of the workers which had taken place in the struggles of the CIO, they had not at all touched this vast army of unemployed. Now, when the workers come, that is these southern whites and these southern blacks, Black workers were primarily put in the same types of jobs that they had traditionally been put in, those which were neat to whites, and the white workers who come from the south would get the skilled jobs. No black was ever hired directly into a skilled job inside of the plant. At best, he could expect is that he would be promoted upward providing there be a turnover in the labor force. And there was a terrific turnover. This turnover was brought about because most of the southern white who come north were still carrying out somewhat of the warfare feeling that had been left over from the Civil War. And often they resented these northern platformers, so they would quit at a minute notice. And therefore, the white Southerners who was coming in would move from plant to plant. Blacks, on the other hand, who was getting their first opportunity to come into the plants, tended to stay on the job and therefore they would stay generally in the same areas that they were involved in. However, As these blacks began to grow in number inside the job, blacks began to carry out an offensive on the job itself over the question of where they were going to work. And generally, when this issue would confront a white worker, he was always confronted with the question of what he was going to do. And we had hundreds of cases of interruption of war production by white workers who would refuse to work with blacks. Now, usually the company, because it was under the increased demands of the government to get out war production, would side with the black, because in order to get out production, it would have to place a black in one of those jobs. But the approach that they would take to resolve the question was also a very racist one in a sense, because never did they say, why don't you like to work with blacks, because black is a man. They would always say, now you know the boys over there, and we have to get out these tanks in order to support the boys. In other words, they were appealing to the patriotism of the white worker, rather than confronting them with decisions of their racist position. Now, sometimes these issues could not be resolved on the flat floor level, and it would spill over into the Union Hall. And there was big meetings at the halls, practically every week, in which workers would be getting up in the hall and trying to say why they didn't want blacks to come in their department. And, you know, it was very ironic. because the union had been organized by lots of white radicals. And because in carrying out the first strikes, blacks had been involved, white radicals assumed automatically that there was solidarity between the workers. And often these radicals would get up in the meeting and say, look, we haven't got a racial question here. We are all brothers now. But blacks didn't have no illusion about that at all. White workers, on the other hand, would get up in the meeting and say, now, just look, you know, I haven't got nothing against colored fellows. And in order to justify, he'd say, well, I know it's the colored woman. Well, he never recognized that we blacks was looking at him and saying to ourselves, oh, yeah, so you deprived a young black out his milk. You wasn't really being pro-black. But this was the type of discussion that would be carried out. Now, another incident which I was involved in myself, we was washing up inside of the plant, and one whitewacker said to me, Hey, Jimmy, why is your hair one color and Fred, who was a co-worker of mine, another? Before he could ask the question, Fred immediately said to him, Oh, he said, the reason I'm one color and Jimmy's another color is because your grandfather raped my grandmother, and now you're afraid I'm going to do the same thing to you. In other words, what the white worker had started out to be a racist remark against the black, he turned it into a serious racist question confronted the white's prejudice. Now, throughout that course of blacks coming in the shop, there was also the question of where was blacks going to eat? Because although right out in front of the plant, there were several small shops, No black dad go in. So during the period of 1942 and 43, blacks carried out an offensive against these rusterats in front of the platte and broke up the rusterat by going in and flooding the rusterat out. Generally, the white manager would always say he would serve us, but the reason that he wouldn't do it is because his white customs. So we just made it a deal. We said, look, we will supply the customer. So what we would do, we would flood his restaurant with blacks. And he had better business than he had ever endured with just having whites. Now, we weren't really trying to advance him by giving him business. But what we were concerned with was breaking up the idea that if blacks come in the restaurant, white workers should automatically flee. Now, what I'm trying to make very clear here is that, number one, the racist hostility remained throughout the course of the war between these blacks and whites. Now, I want to say very clear, however, that although the Union had resolved during the course of that war several major questions so far as blacks working in departments that hitherto blacks had never worked in before they had not at all related to anything serious about the black community because as these two waves of peoples come in that is the black worker from the south and the white worker from the south it created a tight kiss ghetto situation because, you know, the peculiar thing always happens. Number one, when the white would come from the south, he always moved right on the edge of where blacks. In fact, they come so close and in such number that blacks are old. That's the way the white man is. He can't stand us down south and we come up north. Here he is right behind us. Or, they would say, because whites would quit their jobs and leave so fast. Oh, so I know what he's doing. He comes up here and he makes a little money. He goes back south and buy a farm and put some poor black back to work on the farm working for him and makes himself a capitalist. These kinds of judgments was already beginning to take place with these blacks because although this was the first time they had had an opportunity to come in and work in industry, they were already beginning to make sudden, serious judgments that hitherto blacks had dared not make in relation to white peoples. Now, because of this intense, increased tension that was building up in the black ghetto, suddenly, in 1943, in Detroit, Michigan, It exploded in a vicious rebellion. Now, you know, all white folks, ever since Lankton allegedly freed slaves, instead of calling black revolts rebellion, they started calling it routs. Because, you see, before Lankton had freed slaves, there was hundreds of rebellions. But allegedly, because we was not free, anything we do would be a criminal act. and therefore they labor everything around. But in 1943, there was a rebellion in Detroit, the largest rebellion up until, what, 1965, in which blacks moved one step further down the road toward manhood, both in the community and in relation to the white workers who they were working with inside of the shop, because when that rebellion was over, blacks went back in the shop with a new arrogant attitude. And from that point on, they were contesting whites for everything they said and every move they made. Not only that, the white religious structure in Detroit began to force their relatives, who at that time would not let blacks get out of this ghetto at all. move into other areas of the city. Now as these blacks moved in other areas of the city, they were really following a pattern which had always been historical true in the United States, that is black folks getting white folks leaving. And that is one of the reasons why White has always felt he could advance in this country, because he could always advance up in blacks would always have to buy his leaders, his old churches, his old houses, his old theaters, his old everything. Everything except his old job, because whites did not give up their jobs. But this was the beginning of the first move of the whites to the suburbs. And this was the first beginning of blacks mushrooming out of the ghetto to the point that they began to be the largest social force in around the flat areas. because the old plants had not been built too far from the black ghetto itself. So whites moved to the suburbs, blacks began to fill this vacuum, and that began to increase the strength of the blacks as they began to merge out. Now blacks in the plant also aware of what had happened in World War I when the war was over, was thinking very serious, however, that when this war was over, they were again going to go back to being laid off because the pattern had always been the minute an issue is over in the United States, you forget about the blacks. However, because these white workers had constantly moved from jobs to jobs, Blacks had acquired now some seniority for the first time in their life in a substantial number. And for the first time in their lives also, they had began to acquire some of the commodities of life like furniture, some houses, few automobiles, a few frigidaires, which could give them the status of being the head of a family. Not only that, black women's had come into the plant also. And for the first time in the history, there was a dual paycheck in the black man's family. The first time in the history of the United States was a dual paycheck. That is, two paychecks was now involved. And blacks also began to be able to buy certain houses. You know, today, Detroit, for instance, is the largest homeowner city in the North Mason-Dixon line. That is, more people, both black and white, own homes in the city of Detroit and in the other city north of Mason-Dixieland. Primarily because these houses are built of the type of small size. That is the one in two families. There is no multiple dwelling in the city itself. And also, they were built as the plants began to mature and grow. These are the areas in which these blacks during the war began to move in. Now, so when did they come? That is, when the war was over, blacks like whites poured in the street and celebrated in the same way. However, not so sure, even though they had arrived at a new plateau and the feeling of black dignity, but not quite sure what might happen. However, The casualty of that war was only the black woman. When the reconversion took place, that is, from Warwick back to Alder, the black woman was missing, but the black man was there in numbers. I want to also say that the UAW throughout that period, which was the most advanced union of our times, had concentrated primarily on keeping the workers in the plant throughout the war because it was working under the no-strike pledge which it had given to the war. And the union apparatus spent its time going back and forth to Washington and building up this political machine. Now, also, during the war, there had not been any substantial wage raises at all. For instance, I worked seven days a week 10 hours a day, I got $69.36 working in the auto plant. In other words, we was making $1, $2, $12 an hour. So there really wasn't no high wages. Now, Walter Luther, in 1946, at the strike against Joe Modi, brought into the labor movement a new economic concept. Because prior to that, the old Thomas satisfaction had been primarily concerned about the condition of the WAC because it had grew out of that atmosphere that was pre-union, that is, the control of the speeds of the line. Ruther, in his famous open-the-book concept, which he confronted Gell-Moder in 1945 in the long Gell-Moder strike, began to put forth the idea that the Congress should open its books and on the basis of the tremendous profit that it had cumulated could give to the workers certain free benefits. However, we should be very clear that this new development, which all the workers supported because it seemed to them at this time, and primarily because of the lower status of the way, that this was a significant move, supported 100% direction in which the union was taken and black workers who had originally went into the plant feeling a pure racist type of a feeling now began to embrace both class and race and they too followed along the pattern and supported the pattern of the union in fact in those days 1945 46 and 47 white unions could come into the black community and talk about anti-poll tax, anti-laze legislation, which the union could take a very advanced position on because it primarily concerned the peoples down south and really didn't confront the white worker toward taking any position at all. Now, these were the years in which blacks supported the union to a large degree, And the old blacks who now had acquired the status of seniority in the plant, including blacks like me of my age, began to concern themselves about further economic development. And this is the period from 1945, 46, up until the Korean War. Now, when the Korean War come, the young blacks, because number one, Some of them resented the facts that Harry S. Truman, who had ran his campaigns in 48 on the basis of civil rights, decided that he was going to integrate the army. That is, he could put black and white together. Blacks interpreted that very well. Truman did not integrate the army because he was for blacks being equal to whites. He said he integrated the army in order to save the United States from the threat of the Communists. And all over again, this tradition pattern. One, Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves in order to save the Union, not because he cared about the blacks. Roosevelt plans Executive Order 8802 in order to fight the Knoxists who was threatened in the United States, not because of the blacks. Harris Truman now was going to integrate the army in order to fight the Communists. And the union had taken blacks inside the union because they would have been confronted with the question of blacks being used as scabs. Never yet had that pattern changed. Always when it comes to question of blacks, they did it for some other reason than the reason that blacks was a man and therefore, and a citizen and was entitled to the same as anybody else. However, these young blacks began to carry out offenses And they forced the UAW, right in the middle of the Korean War, to take the position that blacks should have skilled jobs throughout the plant. Because these young blacks who already began to look critical at this war, decided that if they were going to support the war, they were not going to do like the blacks in World War II, be passive and submissive. They was going to put on their piss.

Speaker 1: Now, the Korean War, however,

James Boggs: confronted the union with a problem that up to now had not been confronted with. Out of the Korean War, naturally out of every war there's a great technology advancement, came automation. And with automation came the decline of the union because not only did automation mean new plants and new modes of work and elimination of hundreds of workers, it also meant new plants. And all the cooperation began the great decentralization program that is building new plants out in the suburb. And again, a movement of lots of whites further to the suburb. And it also made it impossible for blacks to follow. Because in this period, it meant traveling 40 or 50 miles into the white suburb. Simultaneously with this, however, was the question of the movement in the south. Now, up to now, most blacks up north had taken a position, too, that it was down south. And they had practically ignored it, except to constantly chide, I don't see why they take it, or I don't understand why them white folks act like they do. However, in 1963, And only until 1960, when the explosion came in Birmingham, Alabama, which is the Pittsburgh of the South, that is, the young blacks went beyond King Passive March and exploded in the street, the movement suddenly come north. Now, actually, that means the movement has only been north five years. And for the first time, blacks began to look seriously at where they were up north. And they found that, lo and behold, since 1955, whole group of blacks, young blacks, had graduated from high school, grew up and had families, and had never had an opportunity to go into the plant zone. Now, from 1955 up until 1962 very few blacks were hired at all so there was a whole period because of automation no young blacks was incorporated into the inductive structure and they had formed already a new way of life and a new way of evaluating this society now as you know the rebellion at watts in 1965 and then finally the rebellion in Detroit in 1967 put the fear into the country as to what were they going to do with this new young breed of blacks. Now because the United States was already involved in a war in Vietnam and was carrying out a policy of pacification there, I think most of you will recall when they put Vice President Humphrey on the road, or Johnson put him on the road, to begin what we blacks interpreted Operation Nigger Pacification, just like pacification in Vietnam. And he was doing it in that year. That is, he was trying to encourage white industry to bring young blacks into the plant, to give them a job. to introduce them into the whack modes. Now what I'm trying to say, however, this new breed of blacks who they're bringing into the job now is not like that old group of blacks who are just hanging on and waiting out for pictures. This new breed of blacks have no illusion about jobs, particularly when they know the possibilities that is involved in automation. They see jobs as a slave, and they come in the plant very bold and say, look, I don't want no flock of jobs. I want the whole factory. This is something that has never been projected by the union itself. Blacks are saying now when they go into the shop that we don't want to just come in here for any old job. We want to make the plant for the first time in history, be relevant to the need of the black community. In order to do that, we have to do something that white workers do not entertain at all in their mind. That is, take the power inside of the plant and turn that plant into an instrument for further development of the black community, which surrounds the plant completely.

Speaker 1: Black Heritage, a history of Afro-Americans. Presented in association with Columbia University.