How did African Americans use labor unions to organize themselves in this period?
EF: The vast majority of African Americans were living in rural areas of the South. They were agricultural workers. Historically, its been very difficult for agricultural workers to form labor unions. They are very spread out. They dont have the proper means of communication. Theyre not gathered together in work places like industrial workers where class consciousness can develop more quickly perhaps. There were examples in the South of agricultural labor unions being formed usually on the statewide level to try to press for the ownership of land by Blacks or better working conditions, better sharecropping contracts, and things like that. They were fairly short-lived. One of the most remarkable features of this period was the incredible array of activity that African Americans engaged in to try to improve their condition and protect their rights. The older view of Reconstruction was that Blacks came out of slavery as children and were manipulated by whites. This is not the case at all.
