Biracial unions drove northern desegregation but their decline splintered liberal-labor alliances

Evidence

In northern cities, the predominance of heavy industry helped move race relations in both progressive and reactionary directions. At first, the rise of biracial unions served as an early impetus for desegregation not simply on the shop floor but throughout the city. But as hard times fell on northern cities, the consequences of economic decline and deindustrialization—massive layoffs, plant closings, and industrial relocation to the suburbs—not only fueled white flight, but also served to splinter the unions and, in the process, the entire liberal-labor political alliance. But in the South, with a few notable exceptions, the postwar urban struggle centered not on deindustrialization but desegregation. — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 39

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Northern capital inherited racism as a tool to divide the American labor movement — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 960; Postwar Northern unions expelled Black workers from skilled trades; Black migration to Northern cities pushed desegregation litigation beyond the South — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 3017 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Northern capital inherited racism as a tool to divide the American labor movement #expands (0.82) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 960
• Black migration to Northern cities pushed desegregation litigation beyond the South #expands (0.80) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 3017
• Residential desegregation fractured white working-class solidarity into defensive individualism #expands (0.78) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 191
• Structurally different racial labor positions invalidate calls to unite and fight #complicates (0.75) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 601
• Postwar Northern unions expelled Black workers from skilled trades #qualifies (0.74)
• Desegregation of public spaces drove working-class whites to reject civic community and city progress #qualifies (0.73) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 252
• White unions’ Jim-Crow exclusion blocked interracial labor unity in the 1870s #exemplifies (0.72)
• Black class alliances with northern capital were inherently short-lived and opportunistic #qualifies (0.71)