Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America

FEATURING JOE WILLIAM TROTTER JR. – The labor movement in the United States has long had a complicated history of addressing race and gender. Some of those complexities are encompassed in the history of black labor in the United States over four centuries.

From the time that Africans were enslaved and shipped to Virginia in 1619 to the modern day conditions of black workers, the story of how African American workers including especially black women workers navigated a tumultuous, racist and sexist world is a fascinating one with great relevance today.

Joe William Trotter, Jr. is the Giant Eagle Professor of History and Social Justice and Founder and Director of the Center for African American Urban Studies and the Economy at Carnegie Mellon University. His new book is called ‘Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America’. He is also the past President of the Labor and Working Class History Association.