Episode 6
The Oil Boom in Plantation Country
Labor in Louisiana
1925 El Dorado oil field attack
The Shreveport Times. May 7, 1925. [pictured]
The Shreveport Journal. May 7, 1925.
The Monroe News Star. May 7, 1925.
An optimistic Pan American investment announcement and hopes of “progress.”
The Bunkie Record. April 6, 1951
OWIU’s nationwide strike in 1952
Monroe News Star. April 30, 1952.
Oil Workers in the River Parishes join the 1952 strike
The Shreveport Times. May 13, 1952.
The outcome of 1950s strikes & collective bargaining
The Shreveport Times. June 2, 1957
Destrehan Refinery Closed in 1958
Monroe Morning World, November 8, 1958. [pictured]
St. Mary and Franklin Banner Tribune, January 4, 1959.
For more about Labor in Gulf Coast Refineries:
Tyler Priest, “Cat Crackers and Picket Lines: Organized Labor in US Gulf Coast Oil Refining.” Research Gate, January 2018. HTTPS://www.researchgate.net/publication/322658288
For the history of the Oil Workers International Union:
Ray Davidson, Challenging the Giants: A History of Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union. Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union. 1988.
For more about Black organized labor in the South & Louisiana:
Adam Fairclough, Race and Democracy: The Civil Rights Struggle in Louisiana. Athens & London: The University of Georgia Press, 1995.
Ray Marshall, “The Negro and Organized Labor,” The Journal of Negro Education 32, No. 4. Autumn 1963.
For a comparative study of white men’s cumulative earnings from 1969-2019, unionized versus unorganized labor:
Z. Parolin & T. VanHeuvelen, “The Cumulative Advantage of a Unionized Career for Lifetime Earnings.” October 8, 2022. Read study online