Resources for Racial Justice

These resources were put together by the UE Education Department to supplement the UE antiracism workshop, “Building Solidarity for Racial Justice,” which was held at the UE Eastern and Western Region council meetings in the fall of 2020. The workshop is a project of the North American Solidarity Project and was developed jointly with Unifor and the National Nurses Union.

UE NEWS Articles

• People in Struggle Changed History: The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s

• UE’s Early Commitment to Black Lives Matter: Fighting Frame-ups, Lynching and “Legal Lynching”

• Jim Crow - A Legacy of Injustice

• 1968: Municipal Workers, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Poor People’s Campaign

• The Question of Unity: A UE Leader’s Lessons About Building People’s Power

Videos

• Dr. Linda Murray on Racism, a talk given by Dr. Murray to a 1986 Human Rights Conference held by the Canadian Auto Workers, one of Unifor’s predecessor unions.

Documentaries

• On the Memphis sanitation workers’ strike of 1968 and its connection to the Civil Rights Movement: “At the River I Stand” (1 hour). The film can be purchased from California Newsreel, rented for 48 hours on-demand from Vimeo, and is also available on the documentary streaming service Kanopy which can be accessed by many public library users.
• On the Civil Rights Movement and Medicare: “The Power to Heal” (1 hour). Read the UE NEWS review of “The Power to Heal” here.

Podcasts

• On the history of racism in America, including using race as a tool used by the wealthy to divide the working class: Scene On Radio, Season Two “Seeing White.”

Websites

• The Southern Poverty Law Center remains an excellent source for information on hate crimes, as well as on the history of racism in the US.
• Check out the 1619 Project by the New York Times for a candid look at the history of chattel slavery and explicitly racist laws and court rulings in the US, and their implications for our present society.
• The Newberry Library hosts an excellent online exhibit on the 1919 Chicago Race Riots.

Immigration History

• Angel Island off the coast of California received many immigrants from elsewhere on the Pacific Ocean. Their website documents immigration history and the use of the island to detain Japanese Americans during WWII.
• On the Bracero program: http://braceroarchive.org/teaching
• On the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, from the Migration Policy Institute: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/irca-lessons-last-us-legalization-program

Other Reading

• On previous abuse by Minneapolis police officers: “Thousands of Complaints do Little to Change Police Ways,” New York Times, June 8, 2020.
• The Economic Policy Institute explains more about the gender pay gap and race.