 | By the Ore Docks: A Working People’s History of Duluth Subjects: Working class -- Minnesota -- Duluth -- History; Ethnic groups -- Minnesota -- Duluth -- History; Labor unions -- Minnesota -- Duluth -- History; Communism -- Minnesota -- Duluth -- History; Farmer-Labor Party (Minn.) -- History; Located on the shore of Lake Superior near the Iron Range of Minnesota and, for much of its history, the site of vast steel, lumber, and shipping industries, Duluth has been home to people who worked tirelessly in the rail yards, grain elevators, and harbor. Here, for the first time, By the Ore Docks presents a compelling, full-length history of the people who built this port city and struggled for both the growth of the city and the rights of their fellow workers. In By the Ore Docks, Richard Hudelson and Carl Ross trace seventy years in the lives of Duluthos multi-ethnic working classaeScandinavians, Finns, Italians, Poles, Irish, Jews, and African Americansaeand chronicle, along with the events of the times, the cityos vibrant neighborhoods, religious traditions, and communities. But they also tell the dramatic story of how a populist workeros coalition challenged the AElegitimate Americano business interests of the city, including the major corporation U.S. Steel. From the Knights of Labor in the 1880s to the Industrial Workers of the World, the AFL and CIO, and the Democratic Farmer-Labor party, radical organizations and their immigrant visionaries put Duluth on the national map as a center in the fight for workeros rightsaea struggle inflamed by major strikes in the copper and iron mines.By the Ore Docks is at once an important history of Duluth and a story of its working people, common laborers as well as union activists like Ernie Pearson, journalist Irene Paull, and Communist party gubernatorial candidate Sam Davis. Hudelson and Ross reveal tension between Duluthos ethnic groups, while also highlighting the ability of the people to overcome those differences and shape the legacy of the cityos unsettled and remarkable past." |
