Langston Hughes called it "a great dark tide from the South" the
unprecedented influx of blacks into Cleveland that gave the city the
nickname "Alabama North." Kimberley L. Phillips reveals the breadth of
working class black experiences and activities in Cleveland and the
extent to which these were shaped by traditions and values brought from
the South.
Migrants' moves north established complex networks of kin and friends
and infused Cleveland with a highly visible southern African American
culture. Phillips examines the variety of black fraternal, benevolent,
social, and church-based organizations that working class migrants
created and demonstrates how these groups prepared the way for new forms
of individual and collective activism in workplaces and the city. Giving
special consideration to the experiences of working class black women,
AlabamaNorth reveals how migrants' expressions of tradition and
community gave them a new consciousness of themselves as organized
workers and created the underpinning for new forms of black labor
activism.