In a working life that spanned half a century, Ernie Goodman was one of the nation's preeminent defense attorneys for workers and the militant poor. His remarkable career put him at the center of the struggle for social justice in the twentieth century, from the sit-down strikes of the 1930s to the Red Scare of the 1950s to the freedom struggles, anti-war demonstrations, and ghetto rebellions of the 1960s and 1970s. The Color of Law: Ernie Goodman, Detroit, and the Struggle for Labor and Civil Rights traces Goodman's journey through these tumultuous events and highlights the many moments when changing perceptions of social justice clashed with legal precedent. 
Authors Steve Babson, Dave Riddle, and David Elsila tell Goodman's life story, beginning with his formative years as the son of immigrant parents in Detroit's Jewish ghetto, to his early ambitions as a corporate lawyer, and his conversion to socialism and labor law during the Great Depression. From Detroit to Mississippi, Goodman saw police and other officials giving the "color of law" to actions that stifled freedom of speech and nullified the rights of workers and minorities. The authors highlight Goodman's landmark cases in defense of labor and civil rights and examine the complex relationships he developed along the way with individuals like Supreme Court Justice and former Michigan governor Frank Murphy, UAW president Walter Reuther, Detroit mayor Coleman Young, and congressman George Crockett. Drawing from a rich collection of letters, oral histories, court records, and press accounts, the authors re-create the compelling story of Goodman's life. The Color of Law demonstrates that the abuse of power is non-partisan and that individuals who oppose injustice can change the course of events.

The Color of Law: Ernie Goodman, Detroit, and the Struggle for Labor and Civil Rights (Great Lakes Books)

Biographies & Memoirs

Babson, Steve

Riddle, Dave

Elsila, David

Community & Culture

Wayne State University Press

The Unfinished Struggle is one of the most concise, comprehensive, and accessible history of the modern American labor movement ever written. Labor scholar and activist Steve Babson's dramatic narrative examines the numerous attempts to organize workers from the Great Uprising of 1877 to the sitdown strikes of the 1930s to the present day. Babson illuminates the tumultuous past, evolving agenda, and continuing conflicts of the labor movement. He carefully identifies the causes of labor's decline in recent decades and explains union leaders' attempts to revive their organizations. Most important, Babson shows readers how the fortunes of organized labor are tied to larger trends in American history.

The Unfinished Struggle: Turning Points in American Labor (Critical Issues in American History)

Business & Money

Economics

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

The Unfinished Struggle is one of the most concise, comprehensive, and accessible histories of the modern American labor movement ever written. Labor scholar and activist Steve Babson's dramatic narrative examines the numerous attempts to organize workers from the Great Uprising of 1877 to the _sitdown_ strikes of the 1930s to the present day. Babson illuminates the tumultuous past, evolving agenda, and continuing conflicts of the labor movement. He carefully identifies the causes of labor's decline in recent decades and explains union leaders' attempts to revive their organizations. Most important, Babson shows readers how the fortunes of organized labor are tied to larger trends in American history.

The Unfinished Struggle

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Babson recounts Detroit's odyssey from a bulwark of the \"open shop\" to the nation's foremost \"union town.\" Through words and pictures, Working Detroit documents the events in the city's ongoing struggle to build an industrial society that is both prosperous and humane.

Working Detroit: The Making of a Union Town

History

Americas

Adama Books

Steve Babson’s engagingly written and splendidly illustrated history of the late 19th century Populist movement recalls for us their remarkable commitment to democracy and racial justice, and their hostility to corporate power. This movement of farmers—and workers!—came to define and advance much that constituted 20th century liberalism. Babson thereby rescues the populist idea from the racist and authoritarian connotations with which it has been saddled in recent decades. 
—Nelson Lichtenstein, University of California / Santa Barbara\n“Forgotten Populists couldn’t be appearing at a more timely—actually urgent—moment. It’s a superb short book that looks at the Populist challenge to corporate greed and monied interests in the politics of 1890s America. The term ‘populist’ has been distorted and misused for decades and Babson shows why. He writes clearly, sharply, and passionately, and the book is especially timely for understanding the present and the future.” 
—Harley Shaiken, Professor Emeritus, University of California / Berkeley\n“Pundits may say that the misguided populism of America’s rural poor explains the rise of Trump and his hijacking of our democracy, but Steve Babson’s deeply engaging and powerful rescuing of the movement’s real history makes it clear that Populism was a radical challenge to oligarchy and corporate greed. It was a movement that must be remembered— along with the possibility of its reawakening.” 
—Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy\nThe Populists of the 1890s transformed the nation’s political terrain, and this book tells the story of the hard-pressed farmers who launched that movement. Their call for a widening democracy to counter corporate monopoly and profiteering tapped into a growing resentment of the rich, a resentment that grew as the economy alternated between rapid growth, producing more millionaires, and severe economic depressions, producing more poverty. The Populist challenge to unbridled capitalism would finally force Republicans and especially Democrats to recognize the growing support for progressive change within their own ranks. These historical Populists are now forgotten as today’s pundits would have us believe that “populists” of the left — no less so than the right — are uniquely drawn to authoritarian politics. Often enough, the term serves as a sly pejorative, hinting at the unreliable behavior and hidden agendas of anyone who challenges established authority. 
You won’t find that in this book. The historical Populists are presented here as champions of democracy and forward-looking reforms. Recovering the historical meaning of their challenge to corporate absolutism is a first step in linking that past to current struggles against the corporate behemoths of our time.

Forgotten Populists: When Farmers Turned Left to Save Democracy

Mission Point Press

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Books by Babson, Steve