2-949-921 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Negro Longshoreman, 1940. 'The longshoremen constitute one of the largest industrial groups in the Negro community of every shipping center. In the South the Negro has been in the longshore work since the days of slavery. In the north he began to come into the work during the Civil War. He has been a factor of great importance in the industry of every port from New York to Galveston, as well as in several ports of the Great Lakes. Work on the water front is hard and has elements of hazard. It is casual and over supplied. In the sense in which the word skill is usually employed it is unskilled, although it does not require a degree of special competence which raises it above the level of what is known as common labor. It is a trade which contains most of the elements which make labor unionism difficult...'.