Meatpackers: An Oral History of Black Packinghouse Workers and Their Struggle for Racial and Economic Equality

by Rick Halpern, Roger Horowitz

"Here is a piece of history not found in conventional textbooks. If ever there were a book our young needed, it is Meatpackers-it reveals an epoch in which trade unions fought and won whatever rights working people possess today. With these rights constantly imperiled, this book is mandatory reading."
--Studs Terkel
"The stories are dramatically and richly told, and they offer insights no scholarly study can quite adequately provide."
--Peter Rachleff, Journal of American History
Available for the first time in paperback, Meatpackers provides an important window into race and racism in the American workplace. In their own words, male and female packinghouse workers in the Midwest-mostly African-American-talk of their experiences on the shop floor and picket lines. They tell of their fight between the 1930s and 1960s for economic advancement and racial equality. In cities like Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha, Fort Worth, and Waterloo, Iowa, meatpackers built a union that would defend their interests as workers-and fight for their civil rights.

Genres: History

162 pages, Paperback

First published October 18, 1996