There's Always Work at the Post Office: African American Postal Workers and the Fight for Jobs, Justice, and Equality

473 Pages·2010·6.27 MB·English

by  Philip F. Rubio

THERE’S
ALWAYS
WORK
AT THE
POST
OFFICE
The
University
of
North
Carolina
Press
Chapel Hill
THERE’S
ALWAYS
WORK
AT THE
POST
OFFICE
African American
Postal Workers
and the Fight for
Jobs, Justice, and
Equality
PHILIP F. RUBIO
∫ 2010 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Designed by Jacquline Johnson
Set in Baskerville MT
by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for
permanence and durability of the Committee on
Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of
the Council on Library Resources.
The University of North Carolina Press
has been a member of the Green Press
Initiative since 2003.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rubio, Philip F.
There’s always work at the post o≈ce: African
American postal workers and the fight for jobs, justice,
and equality/Philip F. Rubio.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-8078-3342-1 (cloth: alk. paper)
isbn 978-0-8078-5986-5 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. African American postal service employees—History.
2. African Americans—Employment—History. 3. Postal
service—Employees—Labor unions—United States—
History. I. Title.
he6499.r82 2010
331.6%396073—dc22 2009049091
cloth 14 13 12 11 10 5 4 3 2 1
paper 14 13 12 11 10 5 4 3 2 1
TO
EVERYONE
WHO HAS EVER
MOVED THE
MAIL
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS
Preface xi Acknowledgments xv
Abbreviations xvii Chronology xix Introduction 1
ONE
Who Worked at the Post O≈ce (before 1940)? 16
TWO
Fighting Jim Crow at Home during World War II (1940–1946) 51
THREE
Black-Led Movement in the Early Cold War (1946–1950) 74
FOUR
Fighting Jim Crow and McCarthyism (1947–1954) 99
FIVE
Collapsing Jim Crow Postal Unionism in the 1950s (1954–1960) 121
SIX
Interesting Convergences in the Early Sixties
Post O≈ce (1960–1963) 148
SEVEN
Black Women in the 1960s Post O≈ce and
Postal Unions (1960–1969) 171
EIGHT
Civil Rights Postal Unionism (1963–1966) 191
NINE
Prelude to a Strike (1966–1970) 207
TEN
The Great Postal Wildcat Strike of 1970 233
ELEVEN
Post-Strike (1970–1971) 262
Epilogue 275 Conclusion 286
Notes 287 Bibliography 409 Index 433
ILLUSTRATIONS
William H. Carney 17
John W. Curry 21
Minnie Cox 24
Wayne Wellington Cox 25
Railway Mail Service clerk, 1913 31
Hubert Henry Harrison 35
James Cobb 52
nalc
national convention in August 1974 in
Seattle, Washington 66
National Alliance District One (Texas and Louisiana)
Auxiliary convention, 1978 79
Rowena Hairston 80
Raydell Moore 84
Heman Marion Sweatt 93
Heman Marion Sweatt giving a speech at a
National Alliance Fourth of July picnic 94
Bertram A. Washington 105
Letter carriers in Mobile, Alabama, 1956 118
National Alliance members lobbying members
of Congress, ca. 1950s 127
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Memphis Branch 27 Marching Band in 1954 132
Arthur Ryland 147
President John F. Kennedy signs Executive
Order 10988 on January 17, 1962 149
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Separate Charter Committee delivers its report on
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integrating the remaining segregated branches at the
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national convention in Denver, September 6, 1962 150
Sam Armstrong 158
Samuel Lovett 159
Eleanor Bailey 172
Workers in one of the main post o≈ces in New York City 173
Post o≈ce recruiting ‘‘job mobile’’ in 1968 in New York City 179
John Strachan 181
Gregory Wilson, Frederick John, and Joann Flagler 182
Carlton Tilley 183
John Adams 184
Evelyn Craig Brown 188
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Forty Branch 41 letter carriers apply for welfare at
the Brooklyn Department of Social Services o≈ce, 1969 208
Clerks sorting mail by carrier route, 1969 212
Postal workers protesting ‘‘Nixon’s nothing’’ 4.1 percent
raise, June 20, 1969 232
Cleveland Morgan 234
Richard Thomas and Je√ Perry 236
Vincent Sombrotto and Morris ‘‘Moe’’ Biller 238
Postal workers on strike in New York City, March 1970 242
Vincent Sombrotto, Al Marino, and Frank Orapello 244
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Militants take over the stage at the New York City -
strike meeting on March 18, 1970 245
Joseph Henry 250
Countee S. Abbott 264
The National Alliance picketing post-strike negotiations between
the post o≈ce and postal unions, March 27, 1970 270
Robert White and John W. White before a
congressional subcommittee 278
Twenty-first-century equipment 282
William H. Burrus Jr. 283
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Branch 142 stewards being sworn in,
Washington, D.C., 2002 284