Leaders like Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass understood that welcoming millions of immigrants — then mostly Europeans — only set the wages of less-skilled workers on a race to the bottom.

“It is proven that you tighten the labor market and wages go up. It always happens. The fact that we had one year of less immigration…It’s one of the most positive things that could happen for tackling the economic inequality.” – Roy Beck

“Beck is thorough. The book draws heavily on academic research into economic history, publications run by Black people, statements of black leaders beginning with Frederick Douglass, and the determinations of multiple gov’t commissions on immigration, all of which warned that mass immigration would take jobs from low/no-skilled Americans…”

“Beck’s core message is that a tight labor market is the most practical means to improve the conditions of all marginalized Americans, non-college-educated black workers most of all.”

“A good parent, for instance, wouldn’t allow their strongest child to exploit his younger, weaker siblings or neighbors. Yet that’s exactly what corporate executives have done to vulnerable workers.”

“…it’s hard to argue with Beck’s assessment: “No congressional action in the last 60 years has been more destructive to Black Americans’ employment, income growth, and wealth accumulation than the Hart-Celler immigration act.”