America as we know it today would be nothing without Black labor. From the first enslaved Africans who built our economy, to the unheralded agricultural and domestic workers during segregation, to the frontline workers who put their health on the line during the pandemic. 

Historian Blair LM Kelley has been highlighting the stories of the Black working class her whole career. In her new book Black Folk, she traces the story of Black workers from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement. Kelley unearths forgotten stories of the sharecroppers, washerwomen, Pullman Porters, and US Postal Service employees (to name a few) who provided the engine for the American economy for generations. 

Beginning with her own family’s history, she details not only the hardships Black workers faced, but also the joy in community, and collective power in labor organizing, the effects of which still echo today.

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For More:

• Into Dirty Air
• Reconstructed: Birth of a Black Nation
• The Quiet Power of Preservation