The Political Economy zy of Early Southern Unionism: Race, Politics, and Labor in the South, 1880-1 953 zy GERALD FRIEDMAN Southern unions were the weak link in the American labor movement, organizing a smaller share of the labor force than did unions in the northern states or in Europe. Structural conditions,including a racially divided zyxw rural population, obstructed zy south- em unionization. The South’s distinctivepolitical system also blocked unionization. A strict racial code compelling whites to support the Democratic Party and the dis- franchisement of southernblacks and many working-classwhites combinedto create a one-party political system that allowed southern politicians to ignore labor’s de- mands.Unconstrained by working-classvoters, southernpoliticiansfacilitatedstrike- breaking and favored employers against unions. hy were unions so much less successful in the South than in the North at gaining membership and advancing the interests of workers during the heyday of union growth fioml880 to 1953? Some consider southern cul- ture to be noticeably different than that of the rest of the United States. But was culture behind the South-North disparity in union success; or was the disparity due to political and structural factors not unique to the South? SOUTHERN EXCEPTIONALISM “There exists among us,” W. J. Cash wrote in 1940, “both North and South-a profound conviction that the South is another land, sharply differ- entiated from the rest of the American nation, and exhibiting within itself a remarkablehomogeneity.”’Described as “conservative,” “tradition-loving,” “conventional,” “courteous,” and “generous,” southernwhites have a strong sense of “group identification” and are recognized by both northerners z and southerners as holding a distinct culture.2 Late to industrialize, defeated and The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 60, No. 2 (June 2000). zyxw 0 The Economic History Association. All rights reserved. ISSN 0022-0507. Gerald Friedman is Associate Professor, Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003. E-mail: gfriedma@econs.umass.edu. I am grateful to Nancy Folbre, Carol Heim, Bruce Laurie, Stanley Engerman, C. Vann Woodwad, anonymous referees, and participants in the Yale University Seminar in Economic History for en. couragement and suggestions. This article is dedicated to the memory of C. Vann Woodward. Cash, Mind, p. vii. Just a few of the other works exploring the distinctiveness of southem society include: Clayton and Salmond, eds., South; Davis, Gardner, and Gardner, DeepSouth; Link, Paradox; Mandle, Roots; Myrdal, American Dilemma; Reed, Enduring South and One South; Wiener, zy Social Origins; Woodward, Origins,Burden, and Strange Career; and Wright, Old South. zyx * Over 90 percent of residents of both regions agreed zyxw that southerners had a distinct culture; Reed, Enduring South, pp. 29, 11, 22. 384