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CHICAGO NEGRO LABOR BLACK black ghettos in America. It seems to me then that with these increasing numbers of Negroes in the cities like Chicago and their increasing dissatisfaction due to their social, economic and political plight there is fantastic potential for social, economic and political power (call it "black power" if you will). It is the growing opinion of careful civil rights observers and participants that social change in this nation for black people will only become possible when economic and political power is made manifest and utilized by black leadership for the direct welfare of the black community. There is nothing magic in this formula; it is the same as that which has been used by every national and ethnic group in this nation to extricate itself from social oppression. The civil rights movement and its leaders must take heed from the past. It is precisely at this point that the Negro American Labor Council, as an organization point or vehicle, becomes relevant to the aspirations of the Negro people and the civil rights movement. It came into being as a protest against the abuses of racial discrimination within the labor movement itself. Founded by that dean of the Negro in labor, Mr. A. Philip Randolph, its stated purpose is the "elimination of segregation and discrimination in labor, government and industry." This purpose is noble and certainly more practical than the right to enter the front door and sit on a stool in a lunchroom, to eat a hamburger, because it speaks to the problem of having the wherewithal to purchase said hamburger. It deals with the problem of opening the way for a black man or woman to make a living commensurate with their potential ability thus providing for their family the economic necessities and wants that give dignity and respect to the human personality in a highly affluent society. The history of the Negro in labor is as sad and sordid as any to be told in the sad, sad dilemma of American racism and democracy. He has been traditionally and systematically the last hired and the first fired. He has had the lowest, most menial jobs available regardless of his qualifications. It has been from this base of economic deprivation that America has been able to sustain its deliberate program of political and social inequality. It is from the eradication of this deprivation that the Negro must revise this inequality. The Negro American Labor Council is qualified to begin to deal with this basic issue. Because of the experience and training acquired in the trade union movement, the familiarity with the various devious tactics used by those in economic power, sometimes on social and political 311
