A Short Q&A with the Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power Contributors
Today’s interview is with Michael Sistrom, Professor and Chair in the Department of History and Director of Quality Enhancement Plan, at Greensboro College in North Carolina.
Tell us a little bit about your essay, “The Freedom Labor Union: Economic Justice and the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi.”
The essay traces the history of the Mississippi Freedom Labor Union and related efforts at communal housing and control over welfare programs between 1965 and 1969 as part of the evolution of the black freedom struggles and the War on Poverty.
What sparked your interest in labor history?
I’ve long been interested in the intersection between labor activism and civil rights, especially by African American workers. Unionization efforts like the MFLU represent a combination of grassroots organizing and public protest in the name of accumulating power.
Why do you think that the study of labor history is important today?
Studying labor history reveals the resilience of the economic and political power structure, especially to use race to divide the working class, but labor history also reveals the potential of grassroots organizing and protest, especially by biracial coalitions of the poor and working class to challenge the power structure.
What are you currently working on?
The MFLU essay is part of a larger, ongoing book project on the history of the Mississippi Freedom Democrats and the evolution of black politics and the civil rights movement after the Fall of 1964.