These efforts were not without some result, for sentiment began to change. In its August, 1918, issue the editor of the Labor News of Detroit, Michigan, said:
The time has arrived for the American labor movement to face squarely the fact that the negro is a big factor in our industrial life, and that he must be taken into account in the adjustment of our economic differences. Never again can the negro be ignored. Time and time again the selfish masters of industry have used him to batter your organizations to pieces, and, instead of trying to win him over, you have savagely fought him, because they used him as a strikebreaker. But the negro must be made to see the value of organization to himself, and he must be incorporated into and made a part of the great labor movement. It is a stupid policy to try to keep him out. Let us work to shift him from his present unhappy position, where he is despised by the big business element, notwithstanding his utility as a strikebreaker, and hated by unionists for his loyalty to the open shop element. Unionism must welcome the negro to its ranks.
Footnote 149: [(return)]
Southwestern Christian Advocate, New Orleans, La.
Footnote 150: [(return)]
Ibid.
Footnote 151: [(return)]
Report of Bishop's Council, A.M.E. Church, 1917.
Footnote 152: [(return)]
Report of Proceedings, American Federation of Labor, annual session, 1913.
Footnote 153: [(return)]
Report of Proceedings, American Federation of Labor, annual session, 1916.
Footnote 154: [(return)]
Report of Proceedings, American Federation of Labor, annual session, 1917.
Footnote 155: [(return)]
Minutes of Session, National League on Urban Conditions, January 29-31, 1918.
Footnote 156: [(return)]
Report of M.N. Work on migration to the North.