First published 1981
Hosea Hudson works the brutal shifts in Birmingham's steel mills during the Depression. The heat and danger forge more than metal. They forge his determination to fight for workers' rights. Hudson joins the Communist Party and discovers his voice as an organizer. He builds alliances across racial lines in a city built on segregation. His activism leads him to the presidency of a CIO union local. The work is dangerous. Company bosses and local authorities target him. Fellow workers sometimes distrust his politics. Hudson navigates these threats while building a movement. Painter reconstructs his story through extensive interviews with Hudson himself. His words reveal the daily struggles of Black industrial workers in the South. They show how one man transformed his anger into action. This oral biography captures Hudson's journey from mill worker to labor leader during one of America's most turbulent decades.
Genres: 20th-century, african-american, labor, non-fiction, biography-memoir, activism, oral-history, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, underdog
Setting: Birmingham, South
Period: Great Depression
414 pages · Paperback · Harvard University Press