Stomach equality: An analysis of the practical effects of white supremacy on the organizing drives of the Brotherhood of Timber Workers

Like a specter, white supremacy has haunted this nation’s history from the very beginning. It has even reared its ugly head in the institutions that are supposed to liberate working people, namely labor unions. What about the labor organizations that organizes on a biracial basis? How did white supremacy effect the day to day work of biracial organizations like the Brotherhood of Timber Workers (BTW)? This work examines the practical effects of white supremacy on the organizing drives of the BTW in the Piney Woods region of East Texas and Western Louisiana between 1910 and 1914. By using archival research and building on the work of previous scholars, this work finds that white supremacy, in various ways, negatively impacted the union’s organizing drives.