Waterfront Workers of New Orleans: Race, Class, and Politics, 1863-1923

by Eric Arnesen

"During the nineteenth century, American and foreign travelers often found New Orleans a delightful, exotic stop on their journeys; few failed to marvel at the riverfront, the center of the city's economic activity. . . . But absent from the tourism industry's historical recollection is any reference to the immigrants or black migrants and their children who constituted the army of laborers along the riverfront and provided the essential human power to keep the cotton, sugar, and other goods flowing. . . . In examining one diverse group of workers--the 10,000 to 15,000 cotton screwmen, longshoremen, cotton and round freight teamsters, cotton yardmen, railroad freight handlers, and Mississippi River roustabouts--this book focuses primarily on the workplace and the labor movement that emerged along the waterfront."--From the preface

Genres: History, Politics, American History, Race, Labor

384 pages, Paperback

First published February 21, 1991

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great historical writing can take seemingly narrow topics and create spotlights to illuminate and clarify larger societal, political and economic issues. Eric Arnesen’s careful, detailed analysis of New Orleans waterfront workers is as good an example of that as I can imagine. This book should interest anyone cares about the history of race, labor, the South and New Orleans.

The relative prosperity enjoyed by prominent blacks, virtually all of whom were free prior to the Civil War, in post-bellum New Orleans didn’t extend to the newly freed slaves who were settling in the city. While the elite black community fought for civil rights they “encountered hostility from white Republicans as well as Democrats and a degree of apathy from black workers” who were much more interested in jobs, especially on the thriving waterfront of the Mississippi River. The competition for labor they provided led to increased racial tensions that peaked on September 14, 1874 at the “Battle of Liberty Place,” which marked the end of Republican Reconstruction in New Orleans [Update: the monument commemorating the battle was one of four statues, the three others honoring, as Abraham Lincoln called it, the so-called Confederacy, that were removed by the city in May 2017]. The result was the consolidation of white supremacists on one side and, as blacks gradually lost political power, the growth of black societies focused on public welfare, social services, and labor.

Over the next decade, relationships slowly improved between the more skilled white waterfront workers, most prominent of which were the screwmen, those who compressed—or screwed—the cotton bales tightly together in the hold of ships, and the mostly black laborers who loaded and unloaded ships. Although the labor was racially divided, by the 1880s white workers resisted attempts of ship owners to fire and lower the wages of black workers and also supported a reduction in 13 hour work days. But, despite the support, this did not necessarily mean that racial relations were improving. In one of many examples of Hansen’s skillful prose, “Historians must be careful not to place words in subjects’ mouths; historical ventriloquism will not substitute for absent documents.”

Biracial unions, or at the very least, cooperation between segregated unions, led a number of victories in wage and working condition fights and strikes from the early 1880s through the depression of 1893. This led to one reporter to speculate that “the antagonisms of race and sections will be first fully solved, and pass away” in New Orleans. But economic stagnation, declining wages, and increased competition for work led to a vicious re-emergence of racial antagonisms. As Hansen writes, “in late 1894 and early 1895, the New Orleans waterfront exploded in crisis. White screwmen and longshoremen, seeking total exclusion of black workers from their trades, utilized strikes and violence to achieve their goals.” Gangs of white workers conducted campaigns of intimidation, violence, vandalism, and, for example, threw valuable equipment belonging to black screwmen overboard into the Mississippi. But Hansen again warns of drawing simple conclusions noting, ‘the waterfront crisis of 1894-95 had brought to an end almost a decade and a half of union power…the disintegration of interracial alliance, increased white hostility to blacks…But opinion divided on the relative importance of racial versus class issues.” But there is no question that the national depression was exploited by the owners of commerce and the workers suffered as a result.

By the turn of the century tensions lessened greatly and a new period of relative cooperation and prosperity for black and white workers. Their unions once again collaborated on strikes and other work actions until it was generally acknowledged that they held the upper hand over employers. One critical cotton planter went so far as to complain at a public hearing, “This is the worst nigger-ridden city in the South.” Another contributing factor was the reemergence of a political machine, led by Mayor Martin Behrman, whose patronage and collaboration with unions led to economic stability. “The alliance which ended racial competition on the docks permitted the screwmen to reassert their control over the labor market and the conditions of their work.”

On the other hand, black workers were always fighting to maintain their status. Their needs were often subordinated to more skilled workers and they suffered greatly with the reemergence of government policies of segregation that gained steam after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Plessy vs. Ferguson. Even the Republican Party’s Lily-White faction worked hard to exclude blacks from public life. Street cars were segregated and limited the ability of workers to get to their workplaces and convene in large social groups. With the advent of World War I, even the federal commissions and agencies took a stronger role in commerce regulation were dominated by whites, sometimes white supremacists, and they exercised their control to enforce restrictive racial quotas and rules.

While the labor shortage caused by World War I briefly improved the fortunes of the waterfront workers, employers laid the foundation for the ultimate destruction of union dominance. First they provided political support to reformers who undermined the political patronage that had kept so-called Ring politicians who were sympathetic to unions in power. Although Mayor Behrman and his allies were closer to union interests, throughout his term he favored pragmatism over purity or, as Hansen writes, “as so often was the case in New Orleans, principle receded before practical compromise.” Workers were fooled into voting for anti-union “reformers” because they felt Behrman and his allies were too willing to accede to employers and owners. What they didn’t understand was that the reformers were virulently anti-union and completely beholden to the employer/owner class.

Owners also championed the “Open Shop” idea, which in recent history is the same as the Orwellian concept of Right-to-Work. By allowing workers to opt out of union membership, they argued, workers had more rights. As Open Shop-friendly politicians were elected as governor, mayor and other positions, they also ran and governed on more openly racist, exclusionary policies. The result was the ultimate destruction of biracial union cooperation and a prolonged period of lowering wages, extended work hours, and declining work conditions culminating to the low point during the Great Depression.

Hansen’s eloquent, thorough history, written in 1991, has eerie echoes in the early 21st Century politics of race, labor and economic policy. As much as we might want to think we live in unique times, Hansen demonstrates that our struggles are eternal and constantly repeating. Progress ain’t as simple as we might like to believe.

[Sean Chick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm usually not big on social history, but the writing was top notch.