The 400th anniversary of the arrival of enslaved Africans in British North America is an appropriate moment to revisit Philip S. Foner, Ronald L. Lewis, and Robert Cvornyek’s magisterial, The Black Worker: From Colonial Times to the Present. First published in the 1970s and 1980s, the 8-volume documentary collection proved essential to a broader recognition of the central role that working-class African Americans have played in the economic, social, and political history of the United States. It has now been reissued in a freely available online format by Temple University Press. 

William P. Jones is Professor of History at the University of Minnesota and Vice President of the Labor and Working-Class History Association. He is the author of two award-winning books, including The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom, and the Forgotten History of Civil Rights. He has been a guest on the PBS NewsHour, NPR’s The Takeaway, and C-Span’s Book TV and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, The Nation and other publications.

This event has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor.

Register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/william-jones-on-the-past-present-and-future-of-black-labor-history-tickets-71660684035

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