Bogalusa Labor Conflict of 1919

This entire passage has been taken directly from The Encyclopedia of U.S. Labor and Working-Class History---Vol. 2 of a 3 Vol. Series. This particular part was written by the brilliant Professor of History Stephen H. Norwood and is based upon his groundbreaking work "Bogalusa Burning: The War against Bi-racial unions in the Deep South, 1919." It should be required reading for all Bogalusa school children and should result in the building of a labor statue in the Goodyear Park. We will work on it. ---

The Bogalusa, Louisiana, labor conflict of 1919 produced the most dramatic display of interracial labor solidarity in the Deep South in the first half of the twentieth century. The Great Southern Lumber Company (GSL) systematic use of violence to disrupt the organization of loggers and mill workers caused the Louisiana Federal of Labor at the time to denounce its anti-union campaign as among the most brutal in American history. The United Brothers of Carpenters and Joiners(UBCJ) and the International Brotherhood of Timber Workers(IBTW), both American Federation of Labor(AFL) affiliates, welcomed Blacks into their ranks early in the organizing drive because they feared the company could mobilize them as strikebreakers. Blacks represented a significant proportion of the lumber industry's labor force.

Bogalusa's white and black workers drew much closer together as the organizing campaign proceeded, in part because company gunmen and pro-employer vigilantes violently assaulted unionist of both races. In addition, several factors peculiar to the lumber industry made white loggers and saw mill workers more receptive to including blacks in their unions. The dangerous and physically demanding nature of work in the forests and sawmills caused whites and blacks to respect each others courage, strength and endurance, qualities they considered essential in defining masculinity. In the lumber industry, where tasks were relatively homogeneous, whites ad blacks worked closely together. Blacks were therefor less likely to be stigmatized by less desirable jobs.

GSL's violent campaign of intimidation against the union effort revealed the limits of company paternalism. Entrepreneurs from Buffalo established Bogalusa as a model town in 1906, intended as an alternative to dilapidated shack settlements surrounding most southern lumber mills. GSL touted Bogalusa as a "New South City of Destiny" centered around the world's largest lumber mill. The company deliberately dispersed housing to present congestion and boasted that it provided modern recreational and school facilities for each race. But it also tightly controlled town government and maintained its own heavily armed police force. While fiercely anti-union, GSL denounced the organizing of blacks in particularly venomous terms, charging that the unions threatened the racial hierarchy on which social order depended.

PART 2 coming next.