Black Skilled Tradesmen Systematically Locked Out by AFL Unions

As AFL craft unions organize, Black workers who had practiced skilled trades as enslaved artisans and free craftsmen during Reconstruction are excluded from union membership by constitutional bars or tacit exclusion. Plasterers, bricklayers, carpenters, and cigar makers who had worked alongside white craftsmen are denied union cards, excluded from apprenticeship programs, and replaced by white union members. Gompers acknowledges the exclusions but takes no action.