Industrial Work for Black Workers
Raymond W. Pitt worked at the Indiana Foundry Company for nearly 32 years. When he started in 1926, the American Federation of Labor discriminated against African Americans. It was not until the 1930s that AFL-CIO leaers came to Muncie and encouraged the Black population to participate in unions. However, when African Americans would join the AFL they were not always able to join with the exact job they were promised or for which they trained. For example, Frank J. Nelson worked at the Muncie Malleable Foundry Company where the AFL would refuse memberships to African Americans as skilled tradesmen. Instead, African Americans could only join the union as laborers.[2]
It would take time for African Americans to get the same opportunities in unions as white workers. Given the discrimination that many had endured from the unions, African Americans resisted membership. Most found it difficult to trust working alongside people who were known for discriminating against African Americans. Despite broken trust, many would eventually find themselves a part of unions.[3] Union membership had significant perks for Black workers. Benefits such as better wages and improved working conditions were sought after by everyone in the labor force, but were especially helpful for Black workers who were always fighting to achieve the same conditions as their white co-workers. A key part of this was the job security that unions provided. Mamie Baker, who worked on multiple committees for her local UAW union, explained that the union was “like our lawyer” and stepped in to fight for their employment. [4] Union protections helped prevent African Americans from losing their job due to discrimination, with evidence of misconduct being required for someone’s termination.
Many African Americans were not able to hold supervisory positions within the factories, as their white worker counterparts could for a long time. Instead, Black workers would be relegated to the jobs that white workers refused to take. One interviewee in the Black Middletown project (L112), who moved to Muncie from Tennessee, talked about his job at the Muncie Malleable factory. His first position, at the age of 16, was in an area where he had to wear a respirator that would be changed out every 7 minutes. (See minutes 2:00-4:00 of this interview.) When asked if he got the same work as a white person did, he answered that he got the position because no white person wanted it. After getting involved with the local union, the man discovered he was supposed to be getting 30 percent more than a common laborer, which meant he was losing around 30 cents an hour because he was African American.[5]
Black women also struggled when trying to find industrial work. Dorene Mukes Goodall worked at the Ball Brothers Glass Factory, where she said that a woman had never been hired for production work before. Once she was hired, she worked in the white liner department, which was manned by mostly African American female workers. This highlights how the differences between men's and women's work lasted into the early 1940s. While work would open for African American women, supervisory positions would remain largely off limits to them. [6]
Looking at the industrial work experience of African Americans and immigrants is vital, as the Lynds passed over them with their initial study of Middletown. These experiences foreshadow how minorities in the community would adapt throughout the years to unfair treatment. Despite African Americans and immigrants making up a modest portion of Muncie's work force, their experience is still important to the city's story.
These unions also helped their members outside of the workplace. Unions commonly held activities or events that took place outside of work, and those that were mostly or fully comprised of Black members focused on fighting civil rights problems. Hurley Goodall, a leader of Muncie's African American community for decades, highlighted a personal experience of his that shows the interest of his local union in social issues. When two young black men were not hired by the fire department, the union intervened and threatened the mayor, H. Arthur Tuhey, saying that he would not have their support in the next election. Facing a possible loss, Tuhey conceded. With help from the union, Goodall and the other man became the first black firefighters in the history of Muncie.
[1] Luke E. Lassiter, et al., The Other Side of Middletown: Exploring Muncie's African American Community (California: AltaMira Press, 2004).
[2] “Blacks and Organized Labor in Middletown Paper and Newspaper Clippings, 1993-02-15.” Hurley C. Goodall Papers, Ball State University Archives and Special Collections, https://archivessearch.bsu.edu/repositories/5/archival_objects/12994.
[3] “Blacks and Organized Labor in Middletown Paper and Newspaper Clippings, 1993-02-15.” Ball State University Archives and Special Collections, https://archivessearch.bsu.edu/repositories/5/archival_objects/12994.
[4] Mamie Barker, interviewed by Ashley Moore, Anne Kraemer, and Michelle Anderson, January 29, 2003, Other Side of Middletown Digital Oral History collection, Ball State University Archives and Special Collections, https://dmr.bsu.edu/digital/collection/MidOrHis/id/426/rec/1.
[5] Anonymous (Black Middletown-L112), interviewed by Farid Akani, July 22, 1980, Black Middletown Digital Oral History collection, Ball State University Archives and Special Collections, https://dmr.bsu.edu/digital/collection/MidOrHis/id/444/rec/1.
[6] “Blacks and Organized Labor in Middletown Paper and Newspaper Clippings, 1993-02-15.” Ball State University Archives and Special Collections, https://archivessearch.bsu.edu/repositories/5/archival_objects/12994.