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industry, where there were increasing numbers of Blacks in unskilled and laboring
jobs. This was partly a feature of the general weakness of industrial unionism in
Baltimore in this era. Were industrial unionism was strong, in garments and to a
degree in textiles, there were few Black workers. In men's clothing, the
Amalgamated Clothing Workers, who programmatically stood for multiracial
organizing, apparently organized only a small number of African Americans. In
women's garments, where larger numbers of Blacks (mainly women) worked, Spero
and Harris reported in 1931, based on an interview with an ILGWU official, that
"the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union has spent thousands of dollars
in a futile effort to organize the newcomers.""^

The situation in steel was probably typical of manufacturing overall. There,
in this industry ~ especially at the gigantic Sparrows Point complex - increasing
numbers of Black workers were finding employment. There, from the late 1910s,
the Amalgamated Steel Workers were trying to gain a foothold. During the Great

1919 Steel Strike, there was little response at Sparrows on the part of white workers
(only about 500 of 10,000 walked out) and next to none on the part of Blacks. In

1920 and 1921 there were a series of strikes and a number of Black workers joined
the union. Because of racist attitudes, these Black workers were asked to form a
separate local by the white workers; the national union then denied the Blacks
workers a local charter because their numbers included both skilled and less skilled
workers, and the national would not sanction an industrial local that crossed skill
lines. The Blacks quit in disgust.

Finally the situation of the Ship Caulkers Union, the only craft local in
Baltimore with significant numbers of Blacks, is instructive. This trade revived
during World War I and for the first time in many years began employing whites as
well as Blacks. Black caulkers trained the new white caulkers. By the early thirties,
the white caulkers were half of the union membership and were reportedly in the