He’s one of the most important African American leaders you’ve probably never heard of: Ben Fletcher was a trailblazing anti-capitalist and labor leader, heading up the powerful multiracial Philadelphia-based dockworkers union, Local 8. Historian Peter Cole has made it his life’s work to unearth the contributions of Fletcher, who was jailed for his politics, and has left a legacy from which we can still learn.

Resources:

The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project [1]

Peter Cole (ed.), Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly [2] PM Press, 2021

[1] https://chicagoraceriot.org/

[2] https://www.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1144