Organizing Dixie

"Taft makes it clear that, even in a Deep South state with some of the most reactionary political traditions, courageous trade-union brothers and sisters - black and white - struggled hard and well to secure some measure of social justice." - Journal of American History "As befits a state in which coal, iron, and steel were the bulwarks of its industrial sector, Taft stresses the history of unionism among coal miners and iron and steel workers. Here we learn much about the experiences of the United Mine Workers of America and the Steel Workers Organizing Committee - United Steelworkers of America in the Deep South. Yet Taft does not neglect the history of other Alabama workers. Building tradesmen, railroad employees, textile millhands, and Gadsden's rubber workers all appear in the pages of this book. Here we have the most complete and modern history of a state labor movement in the South written from the perspective of its institutional leaders." - American Historical Review"