The Organization and Racial Formation: The Case of Railroad Labor.

Michael Calderon-Zaks, University of California, San Diego

While Victor Ray acknowledged Michael Omi and Howard Winant’s emphasis on state power in the racial formation, his emphasis on what remained of the racialization picture focused on the power of the organization. This paper tests Ray’s thesis, focusing on the experiences of Mexicans and African-Americans who labored on the railroads in the twentieth century. Both groups were legally barred from joining most Railroad Brotherhoods until the 1960s and were kept in racialized divisions of labor where the pay was lower and work often more dangerous. As this paper documents, the “racialized organizations” in this study were the Railroad Brotherhoods and the railroad companies. Even when the state utilized some of its power to benefit workers of color, the “racialized organizations” interfered enough to limit racial progress.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 67. Racial Projects and the Administrative State