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Government Documents

The Government Documents Department at Tennessee State University is located on the 2nd floor of Brown-Daniel Library

African Americans and Labor

 

The 2025 theme of Black History Month is African Americans and Labor.

The U.S Government Printing Office (now the U.S. Government Publishing Office) has provided information on African Americans and labor almost from its start in 1861.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics site is among the most useful -- see, for instance, Labor force characteristics by race and ethnicity, 2023 -- but it is by no means the only source of data and analysis.

 

“Meeting of agricultural workers union. Bridgeton, New Jersey.” [between 1936 and 1938]
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-DIG-fsa-8b30453
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017764454/

Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940

"American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1940" includes 26 interviews with Black Americans about their work, including:

See also "Race Relations in the 1930s and 1940s", a Library of Congress online display.

Prologue magazine special issue