EMTs, nurses, bus drivers, and supermarket clerks; they're all what are now known as essential workers. But by about June of this year, a lot of people were starting to argue that barbers provided an essential service that they had lived too long without.
Quincy Mills, Professor of History at the University of Maryland in College Park, talks about black barbers, the evolution of their trade, and its political meaning as a skilled form of labor.
Plus: poet Martin Espada reads his poem "Castles for the Laborers and Ballgames on the Radio," written for his friend, historian Howard Zinn.
This week’s Labor History in 2: The Amistad.
Produced by Chris Garlock; edited by Patrick Dixon. To contribute a labor history item, email laborhistorytoday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by the Metro Washington Council’s Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University. We're a proud founding member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network, more than 60 shows focusing on working people’s issues and concerns. #LaborRadioPod
A cold wind and a hot summer sit-down
Tragedy and Resistance at Port Chicago Naval Magazine (Encore)
“The Port of Missing Men”
A Supreme disaster for workers
Working People’s Hidden Histories
Labor history at the AFL-CIO & Labor Notes
“We Remember You”; the AFL-CIO’s tribute to Rich Trumka
Detroit Remains: Using historical archeology to connect the past to the present
The Memorial Day Massacre
Forced labour during the ”Dirty Thirties”
Blood, guts, and organizing
The Haymarket Martyrs Monument: Past, Present, Future
We Mean to Make Things Over: A History of May Day
The death of “Big Steve” Sutton
Working on Earth Day
Big Top Labor: Life and labor in the circus world
Michael Honey on Dr. King: “All Labor Has Dignity”
Industrial murder at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
Jane Street and the Rebel Maids of Denver
Union women heroes, past and present
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