Race Against Liberalism: Black Workers and the UAW in Detroit (review)

David Lewis-Colman's examination of the relationship of black workers to the larger agenda of the United Automobile Workers [UAW] shines a much-needed-light on the politics of racial liberalism, the elephant occupying at least one room of the House of Labor. Through the years, the UAW, regarded as one of the most liberal unions, has earned high marks for its racially inclusive policies. Walter Reuther, president of the UAW, stood out as a white, labor leader marching for jobs and freedom at the 1963 March on Washington. The UAW formed a Fair Practices Committee department within the union at its 1946 UAW Convention. By the late forties, Reuther appointed himself and black unionist, William Oliver, as co-directors of the department, beefed up the Fair Practices agenda, and resurrected the Advisory Council on Discrimination, which included twelve black staff members. Reuther was also on the board of directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP]. What other prominent, American labor leader did more for the cause?

Yet, exclusive policies of the UAW played a significant role in the formation of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement [DRUM] in May 1968. Indeed, as Lewis-Colman demonstrates, the proliferation of black-power caucuses that emerged in Detroit's auto plants in the late sixties was a product of the underbelly of racial liberalism, patterns that he traces back to the early forties. From the perspective of perhaps the majority of black auto workers, the underbelly contained two features that undermined the credibility of UAW's international leaders on race issues. One enduring characteristic was caving into either real or perceived racism among the white rank and file. The other involved using "their civil rights credentials to deflect criticism of their record on race." (53) "Black activists' primary question was how to advance black rights and freedom, while the primary question that guided the civil rights politics of the UAW's white leaders was how to handle 'racial problems' without destroying unions." Thus, the civil rights demands of black workers "often appeared as problems to be resolved rather than struggles to embrace." (67) While support from Reuther and the executive board of the UAW was applauded when they supported fair-practices legislation, racial change, as Lewis-Colman notes, "did not flow easily out of fair-employment laws, model clauses, revised contracts, or even from international pressure." What was needed was "sustained shopfloor pressure," which UAW leaders feared lest the union lose support from its white base. (59) As a result, in the early sixties, while blacks represented around 20 percent of Detroit's auto workers, they made up less than one percent of those employed in skilled positions.

Lewis-Colman's scholarly reflection on the politics of racial liberalism provides historical context for better understanding militant uprisings led by black Detroit auto workers not just at the point of production but also within the larger community in the late sixties. This well-research study deserves a prominent place on the reading lists of courses on American labor, urban, political, and racial history.