American Federation of Labor Systematically Excludes Black Workers

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, American Federation of Labor craft unions maintained explicit racial exclusion through constitutional color bars, separate Black auxiliaries with inferior benefits, or tacit exclusion. The Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, and International Association of Machinists had explicit whites-only membership clauses. By 1930, only about 50,000 of 3 million AFL members were Black. A. Philip Randolph fought within the AFL for Black inclusion, winning a union charter for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1936 after a ten-year battle.