Freedom Train

"Freedom Train is a timely contribution to our understanding of the role of Black labor activism in advancing the movement for racial and economic justice. Cedric de Leon complicates the popular narrative of a 'golden age' of labor organizing centered on the rise of the AFL-CIO. He demonstrates instead that independent Black labor organizing—beginning with the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and the African Blood Brotherhood in the 1920s—was a key driver of the push for racial justice in the labor movement. As Black elites rise to higher positions of mainstream electoral power, Freedom Train provides lessons in how to ensure that they are accountable to the Black working class."—Steven Pitts, cofounder of the National Black Worker Center

"De Leon does what few historians have in centering the Black worker as a player both in the politics of the Black Freedom Movement and in organized labor. This is a remarkable work and one that will be of critical importance to trade unionists and Black freedom activists."—Bill Fletcher Jr., activist, coauthor of Solidarity Divided, and author of "They're Bankrupting Us!": And Twenty Other Myths about Unions