Quote:
Originally Posted by Danzig
holy crap, had no idea about that. i've not read history passed ww2, and that's been mostly history on the war itself, not domestic policies here at home.
i did some searching after reading your post. shocking stuff.
here's a book review--a book you've read maybe?
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/28/bo...ghts.html?_r=0
At the time, most blacks in the labor force were employed in agriculture or as domestic household workers. Members of Congress from the Deep South demanded that those occupations be excluded from the minimum wage, Social Security, unemployment insurance and workmen's compensation. When labor unions scored initial victories in organizing poor factory workers in the South after World War II, the Southern Congressional leaders spearheaded legislation to cripple those efforts. The Southerners' principal objective, Katznelson contends, was to safeguard the racist economic and social order known as the Southern "way of life." |
I haven't read that book, but I'm totally going to check it out now. Thanks for the link! Really depressing to read about how black veterans were cut out of the opportunities provided via the GI Bill, and what a sneaky way to do it- have state gov'ts administer them, rather than the federal. Ugh.
(I did a fair amount of reading on the history of Social Security thanks to an argument I had with a guy who was defending Ayn Rand's collection of Social Security. I actually don't see it as the massive act of hypocrisy it's accused of being, but I did disagree with the amounts of money he assumed she'd paid into it.)