There's Always Work at the Post Office: African American Postal Workers and the Fight for Jobs, Justice, and Equality

by Philip F. Rubio

Overview

This book brings to life the important but neglected story of African American postal workers and the critical role they played in the U.S. labor and black freedom movements. Historian Philip Rubio, a former postal worker, integrates civil rights, labor, and left movement histories that too often are written as if they happened separately. Centered on New York City and Washington, D.C., the book chronicles a struggle of national significance through its examination of the post office, a workplace with facilities and unions serving every city and town in the United States.

Black postal workers--often college-educated military veterans--fought their way into postal positions and unions and became a critical force for social change. They combined black labor protest and civic traditions to construct a civil rights unionism at the post office. They were a major factor in the 1970 nationwide postal wildcat strike, which resulted in full collective bargaining rights for the major postal unions under the newly established U.S. Postal Service in 1971. In making the fight for equality primary, African American postal workers were influential in shaping today's post office and postal unions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807895733
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	05/15/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	472
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Philip F. Rubio is associate professor of history at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro and author of the award-winning A History of Affirmative Action, 1619-2000.
Philip F. Rubio is assistant professor of university studies at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro and author of the award-winning A History of Affirmative Action, 1619-2000.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

A vitally important study—full of memorable characters, patient struggles, dramatic turns, historiographical insights, and meticulous research. In giving us the exciting story of African American postal workers, Rubio recasts the whole story of postal unionism and indeed of postal work.—David Roediger, author of How Race Survived U.S. History



Drawing on his experiences as a postal worker and on his talents as an historian, Philip F. Rubio establishes the significance of employment in the U.S. Postal Service to African American communities. In great detail he also brings to light the important role of postal workers—female and male—as "movers and shakers" in the struggle for civil rights and economic justice. Based on thorough research, written in clear jargon-free prose, and effectively illustrated, this is a wonderful book. Well done, Brother Rubio.—John H. Bracey, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, editor of the Papers of the NAACP and the Records of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

Editorial Reviews

Singlehandedly rescue[s] an important part of African American history. . . . A substantial achievement.—Greensboro News & Record "Page Turners" blog



A major contribution. . . . While There's Always Work at the Post Office rests on the extensive and careful archival work that earned Rubio a Ph.D. at Duke University, it also incorporates the stories and voices of black workers that an activist history must include.—XCP: Cross Cultural Poetics



[An] impressive study. . . . This excellent book documents what postal work meant for many Americans. . . . Highly recommended.—Choice



He reveals the outlines of a crucial, if overlooked, tradition in black labor and civil rights activism." —Journal of American History



An excellent book covering the struggle of African Americans to find value as citizens through their work, and in the larger society. . . . An engaging piece.—Oral History Review



Rubio has crafted a scholarly and accessible exploration of a largely overlooked and extremely important history.—Journal of Southern History



[Rubio's] analysis of racial politics and workplace rights in the USPS, one of the largest employers in the United States, deserves a prominent place in a growing historiography on public sector workers . . . . [His] book mines new and necessary areas of study and points to the instrumental role black public workers played in the American labor and civil rights movements.—American Historical Review



Scholarly, richly detailed and heavily sourced. The timing of the book is especially propitious, given that the USPS is struggling to survive and African Americans make up so large a part of its workforce.—The Free Press

From the Publisher