<< Back to Videos

[VIDEO] BTP Interviews Roy Beck on his Book; Back of the Hiring Line: A link in the chain that drags on the necks of Freedmen

A link in the chain that drags on the necks of Freedmen

BTP Interviews Roy Beck on his Book: A link in the chain that drags on the necks of Freedmen

Listen to the full conversation
here:https://youtu.be/dvGZmqjgSck

Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on email
Email

Get your copy of Back of the Hiring Line shipped directly to your address.

Ask your local Bookstore to stock Back of the Hiring Line, now available for wholesale. 

Back Cover Text

BACK of the HIRING LINE

While most Americans justifiably celebrate Ellis Island ancestors, here are the stories of what the long period of mass immigration after the Civil War meant to freed slaves, their children and grandchildren in the hiring lines of America: decades of delays in gaining industrial job experience, skills and career connections, and constant setbacks in accumulating and transferring wealth.

Average Black household wealth in the 21st century is only a fraction of the wealth of other racial ethnic groups, including recent immigrants. There are many reasons. This book is about one of them: periodic sustained immigration surges over the last two centuries.

This is a little-told story of the struggles of freed slaves and their descendants to climb job ladders in the eras of Frederick Douglass, W.E.B DuBois, A. Philip Randolph, Barbara Jordan, and other African American Leaders who advocated tight-labor migration policies. It is a great history of bitter disappointment and, occasionally, of great hope.


COVER DESIGN
Linda Beck