The KOL achieved its greatest victory in 1885, when it won union representation against the Union Pacific Railroad. At its height, the KOL was the largest labor organization in the world, with almost one million members (Curl 2009, 4, 102). It was also one of the few racially integrated unions. According to Sidney Kessler, “tens of thousands of Negroes” who had never been in the labor movement before joined the KOL in the 1880s. In 1886 there were an estimated sixty thousand African Americans in the Knights of Labor, although some estimate that by 1887 there were closer to ninety or ninety-five thousand. “More than any other union of the eighteen eighties, the Knights of Labor realized that the self-interest of its white members was in the organization of Negro Labor” (Kessler 1952, 272, 275).
An example of the way in which Blacks and Whites worked together in the KOL can be seen in Richmond, Virginia, where small KOL locals began forming in 1881 on the basis of workplace, trade, neighborhood, or fraternal or mutual-aid ties. White and Black workers organized separate locals, and in 1884 and early 1885 established local district assemblies, which combined the small locals. Twelve African American locals organized District Assembly 92; six weeks later, in March 1885, eleven White locals organized District Assembly 84. District Assembly 92 had more than five hundred members and was the first African American KOL district assembly in the United States, according to Rachleff (2012). An integrated KOL campaign in Richmond organized the Workingmen’s Reform Party, which won control of the municipal government in 1886, electing Black candidates. This new administration in Richmond proceeded to build a new city hall with a racially integrated, unionized local workforce. This was actually a biracial coalition of men and women laborers, with Black and White members organizing separately for a linked campaign with shared goals (Rachleff 2012, 34). As significant as the integrated coalition was, the gender equality was equally remarkable, especially given that women could not vote. Women participated in the KOL’s campaigns and boycotts (often as leaders), and in the cooperatives as workers and consumers.
A major issue for the Richmond Knights of Labor was the construction of the new city hall—the old one had been burned down by the Confederate government as it abandoned Richmond in April 1865. In the early 1880s, the reigning conservative White city government solicited bids for the reconstruction of the building. In 1885 the KOL submitted a petition requesting that the hall be built with local materials by local workers employed directly by the city, who would be paid union wages and work eight-hour days. The petition also specified that all jobs, skilled as well as unskilled, should “be open to the employment of ‘colored’ workers” (Rachleff 2012, 35). This was of particular concern because the city had been contracting with workers from the Virginia State Penitentiary and using convict labor. KOL coopers in Virginia were skilled workers and among the most racially integrated of the trades. In the early 1880s the penitentiary housed a mechanized barrel factory within its walls and used convicts to make the barrels. This had a large negative impact on the local Black and White coopers, and the two KOL district assemblies in Virginia mounted a campaign to close the factory. Rachleff notes that not only was the strategy—boycotts, petitions, and electing KOL members to city government—successful, but it also transformed “their labor organization into a political and social movement” (35). Richmond Blacks, for example, convened a statewide Black political convention in October 1885, calling for an end to convict labor and a suspension of support for the Republican Party if it did not agree to this plan.
The Role of Women in Early Union Co-ops
The early union cooperatives were often relatively conservative politically and limited the rights and mobility of women and unskilled workers in their operation and decision making (Leikin 1999, 16). As women entered the labor movement, they began to challenge the gender bias of established cooperative values. Curl notes that co-op women attempted to incorporate “feminine” ideals of mutual aid and volunteerism as central to their cooperative visions (2009, 17). Black women, who had a long and impressive history in the mutual-aid movement, pursued the same goal, and brought time-honored strategies and skills to African American cooperatives. In 1886, Leonora Barry was elected head of the new department of women’s work at the KOL convention (101). Barry was the first female professional labor organizer in U.S. history, and supported the KOL’s vision of cooperative development.3 Women members of the KOL set up cooperative garment factories in Chicago, St. Louis, and Indianapolis.
The Legacy of the Knights of Labor
The Knights of Labor connected workplace issues and labor rights with local, state, and federal policies, and was active in politics and mutual aid as well as economic development. The KOL connected and built upon earlier activities and organizations, and encouraged and promoted women’s and African American involvement. Black members were known for their militancy, and were eventually forced underground in the face of antiunion and racist intimidation and violence (Ali 2003). Many militant White members also went underground in the face of violent opposition from conservatives and the corporate sector (Curl 2009). After the famous Haymarket strike of 1886 in Chicago, the decline of the Knights of Labor was felt most strongly among the cooperatives. As Curl observes, “The entire economic system came down hard on the Knight cooperatives: railroads refused to haul their products; manufacturers refused to sell them needed machinery; wholesalers refused them raw materials and supplies; banks wouldn’t lend” (2009, 106). Most of the cooperatives were forced to close by the end of 1888. The Knights of Labor led a movement that tore through the country, mostly the South. It had a significant impact but then went underground and resurfaced in other forms.
The Cooperative Workers of America
In South Carolina, the Cooperative Workers of America (CWA) built on the foundation laid by the Knights of Labor. Hiram F. Hoover (or Hover), a former KOL member in North Carolina, was president and chief organizer of the CWA. Much of the leadership of the CWA in South Carolina was African American. Most were landless farm laborers with large families. The Hoover movement was strongest where cotton was important and the Black population was highest. Here again, women were admitted with equal status to men (Ali 2003, 62; Baker 1999, 284, 270).
The CWA focused on starting cooperative stores and a free cooperative school system, and addressed issues of wages, work conditions, and electoral reform. The organization’s goal was to strengthen the position of workers, especially Black workers, by decreasing their dependence on the credit system. The CWA used Black organizers (though Hoover was White) and connected the movement to Black Baptist and Methodist churches, union leagues, Black fraternal orders, and other mutual-benefit societies that continued after Reconstruction and often met in secret for protection. As with other African American movements, a strong connection to mutual-benefit societies was important (Ali 2003, 63; Baker 1999, 284, 264).
Locals assembled in clubs, where they studied the organization’s constitution. The initiation fee was fifty-five cents, and for another dollar a member could contribute to the establishment of a cooperative store “where all the members could trade and buy at wholesale rates” (Baker 1999, 264). One noted CWA attempt to establish a cooperative store was unsuccessful because of lack of funds, a shortage of time, and insufficient membership (Ali 2003, 64; Baker 1999, 285). The CWA advanced a progressive platform that included repeal of the poll tax and of all unjust laws against labor, weekly wage guarantees, and “implementation of a free cooperative school system” (Ali 2003, 65). According to Ali, White attempts at infiltration of the CWA failed, but “terroristic suppression” was successful in many areas, especially after rumors of a strike. Also, differences within the Black community led to the organization’s demise after a vigilante attack in the CWA stronghold of Fairview, South Carolina, in early July 1887 (Baker 1999, 279, 282, 283, 285).
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