United States 1886

Synopsis

Late-nineteenth-century America experienced a hardening of racial lines that was reflected in the American working class, including white craftsmen who excluded African American workers. The unskilled workers, who included nearly all African American wage earners, were unorganized before the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor brought them into the largest labor organization in Gilded Age America. African Americans accounted for about 60,000 of the over 700,000 members at the Order's zenith in 1886. Race became the defining issue at the general assembly in Richmond, Virginia, in 1886. At that time the Order embraced its motto—"An injury to one is the concern of all"—by boycotting a white-owned hotel that refused to lodge an African American delegate from New York City. The organization then selected this same delegate to introduce its leader, Grand Master Workman Terence Powderly, at the opening...