Movements on racial, economic justice historically difficult to interconnect, KU expert says

LAWRENCE — Protesters of the Black Lives Matter movement in recent weeks have appeared at Democratic presidential candidates' events, including shutting down a Bernie Sanders rally on Social Security in Seattle.

According to news reports, activists seeking racial justice after incidents in Ferguson, Baltimore, Staten Island and South Carolina don’t feel their message is receiving enough attention from the Democratic candidates, including Sanders, who have championed progressive economic populism.

A University of Kansas professor who is an expert on African-American working-class and labor history is available to discuss tension between the two social movements.

Clarence Lang, chair and associate professor of the KU Department of African and African-American Studies, is a co-editor of "Reframing Randolph: Labor, Black Freedom, and the Legacies of A. Philip Randolph." The book examines the life of Randolph, who formed the Brotherhood of the Sleeping Car Porters, the first African-American labor union to sign a collective bargaining agreement with a major company. He also was a key figure in the 1963 March on Washington, an iconic moment in the U.S. civil rights movement.

Despite his contributions to achievements in both the labor movement and civil rights, Randolph's life also embodies the struggle between two political strands often thought of in opposite terms, Lang said.

"Part of what we're seeing here is people struggling with how to contextualize issues of economic justice against matters of racial justice and vice versa," Lang said.  "While they easily lend themselves to being interconnected, historically and politically this has been much easier said than done. We too often read race and class as mutually exclusive categories. This is why someone like A. Philip Randolph is so important from the standpoint of historical example."

Lang is also a KU associate professor of American Studies and is author of the 2015 book "Black America in the Shadow of the Sixties: Notes on the Civil Rights Movement, Neoliberalism, and Politics," in which he argues the legacy of the 1960s has hindered how present-day challenges of dismal social and economic conditions in contemporary black America are viewed.

To arrange an interview with Lang, contact George Diepenbrock, gdiepenbrock@ku.edu or 785-864-8853.