cc
the second day of the Tenth Annual Wisconsin Book Festival.
My name is Jim Cavanaugh. I'm president of the
South Central Federation of Labor and a former member of the
Wisconsin Humanities Council. On behalf of the Wisconsin
Humanities Council, I am very excited to introduce this
evening's speakers. First however, we want to thank
the volunteers and sponsors who helped make this happen,
including the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation,
the Madison Community Foundation,
Distillery Design,
and Friends of the Libraries University of Wisconsin Press,
of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as of the University
find in the Overture Center lobby, as I'm sure you noticed
when you came in.
While you're in the lobby, visit
second floor actually of the the booksellers lounge, on the
find books for sale Overtuand free parking.you'll
If you come after 1:00 on Saturday or Sunday,
and you're one of the first 200 people to get here,
you'll get a free tenth birthday
Humanities Council. Though the Humanities Council
organizes the festival, the Wisconsin Book Festival
belongs to you. By coming to the festival you
show your support for a world were words and ideas matter.
Please help us even further by
think you received on your way filling out the surveys which I
donation in support of the in, and by considering a small
Your gift will make a difference festival's Birthday Fund.
has a healthy future. After our speakers this evening
we'll open things up
And after that, fothere will be a book sellinge.
and book signing by our authors,
One final note, hoas Ernest Hemingways.
was fond of saying, please
Now I will introduce turn off your cell phones.
The two books that we have our speakers.
The Strike, about a painting that was entitled tonight, the first one is called
The author of that book Tis James Dennis.
He's a professor emeritus of
of Wisconsin-Madison. He's Art History at the University
Architectural Sculptor, author1867-1915,itter:
and of Grant Wood: A Study in American Art and Culture,
and of Renegade
R of Grant Wood, he Modern Independence
John Steuart Curry, as well as catalog essays on Thomas Hartraveling and
exhibits about Grant Wood.
be here, couldn't make it, Mr. Dennis unfortunately cannot
The flight would have taken too long, but we are pleased
that we have a more than able substitute, Paul Boyer.
Paul is the editor of the Studies in American Thought
and Culture series at the University of Wisconsin Press,
which is the series in which
is the most recent publication. Paul is Merle Curti Professor of
History Emeritus at UW-Madison. His numerous works include,
Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft,
When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern
American Culture, and Purity in Print:
Book Censorship in America
to the Computer Age. from the Gilded Age
as Editor-in-Chief Paul has also served
to United States History. With that, we'll hear from Paul
some remarks about
Paul Boyer: Well, thank you The very much.
It's a pleasure to be here. Welcome and thank you folks for
coming right at the dinner hour.
certainly want to thank the Isponsors of the Wisconsin Book
Festival and especially the Labor Council and the
Wisconsin Humanities Council. I'm a former member also and
it's a wonderful organization.
here to talk about this book, As The Strike:ed, we're
The Improbable Story
of Labor Protest, from of an Iconic Painting
story in five parts, but a story Wisconsin
Wisconsin to encompass labor that extends far beyond
art history obviously, history, social history,
So part one would be the origins and cultural history.
Robert Koehler, here's a of it all.
obviously, a mature selfand confident adult. as,
Robert Koehler was born in 1850 in Hamburg, Germany.
His father was a machinist. Together with many other
Europeans, the family emigrated to Milwaukee in 1854
when Robert was four years old. Milwaukee at that time,
a thriving, and emerging
a very conscious labor movement, industrial city, and a city with
Robert showed early promise in and labor population.
artists in Milwaukee. In 1873, when he was 23 years
old, he went to Munich, he returned to Germany to study
art at Munich's prestigious Royal Academy of Art, and it
was there that he produced
his best known work, the painting that is certainly
It actually was his diploma painting.
It was like a graduation thesis,
a painting, and this was his but if you're an artist you do
Munich Royal Academy of Art. diploma painting at the
This was a very familiar genre It's a history painting.
popular form of art, but by the in t1880's it was reallyery
rather old fashioned. Impressionism,
French Impressionism was very much under way with the
paintings of Claude Monet and others, but Koehler chose this
form for his diploma painting,
something new. and he invested it with
recorded great battles, they History paintings typically
He chose to use this form to recorded notable public events.
almost unprecedented for present what at the time was
scene of a very dramatic artists, that is, a contemporary
confrontation with the boss. walk-out by workmen and the
traces the history of labor painting in the 19th
century and he finds a few in Europe, practically none in the
United States, but he did find a
discusses in the book, and has few in Europe which he
Here's one from 1846, the reproductions of the work.
the turbulence in Europe that culminated in the revolutions
of 1848.
by the artist Hoyoll, This waPhillip Hoyoll.ecorded
It represents a scene in
now part of Poland. BreSo there were a few, is
but not very many before
There was one painting that Robert Koehler did in Munich
before The Strike, that Jim Dennis discusses
in some detail. It was
This is a very timely painting called The Socialist.
the early and mid-1880s, because if you're in Germany in
the public mind, and Socialists Sociwere feared and admired, in
and Koehler chose this image. It's hard to know what he
thinks about the figure in the painting.
Is he presenting him
or is he presenting him as ain an admiring way?ning,
Notice the man
It's a rather dark reproduction, down in the lower left.
transcribing the speech that's but this is evidently a reporter
published later in a newspaper. bSo Jim Dennis, in the book,be
does a number of things, and
he does, is to present one thing as an art historian
of the painting itself. a very cWhoops.analysis
This is only my second
The first one was to a very forgiving audience at
Oakwood retirement center, so we'll get through it all right.
Here's the painting again.
History paintings told stories. This was the point.
Audiences, the public, when they viewed a history painting,
was sort of trained to look at
what the artist is conveying. lRobert Koehler shows thee
confrontation between the mill owner, the factory owner,
with his top hat adding to his
brick building behind him. power and authority, and that
the figure has a red shirt on, The figure confronting him,
of revolution and protest. which is of course the symbol
supporters behind him. He's pointing back to his
this is purely personal. Just as an aside,
and he was a factory owner--- My grana factory worker--n 1871,
I wish he had been an owner!
in Dayton, Ohio, in the 1890s. He was a factory worker
the cap that he wore I happen to have inherited
It's exactly like the cap that as a young workman.
confronting the factory owner in this painting of 1886, so I
really identified with that particular part of the painting.
Down in the lower left is a young mother, presumably the
wife of one of the workers
looking very nervously up at the who has walked off the job,
Her little girl is also wearing red, red stockings,
looking at the workmen
Then, a very interesting part of the painting, and a very.
controversial part of the painting, Koehler included
a workman who is bending down to pick up a rock.
And clearly the hint here is of incipient violence.
If a compromise isn't reached,
the suggestion here is this if somcould turn violent.reached
James Dennis discusses these
in very interesting ways. I'm sorry this is so dark.
The reproduction in the book
Jim Dennis sees this as the center of the whole painting.
This is a woman confronting one of the workers.
He has his arms out like this,
"What else can I do?" She's imploring him.
She has her hands up like this. Now the conventional,
traditional interpretation of this focal point in the painting
was that this women was his wife, and that's a very
reasonable guess. But Jim Dennis says,
wait a minute, if you look
she's very well dressed. very closely at her clothing,
the dress, the kind of clothing that you expect the wife of ag
working man to be wearing.
plausibly, that she may be a Jim speculates, and I think very
labor movement who has come to this scene, and is concerned
about how it's all
Then Jim Dennis talks about middle class women in Germany
and in the United States in the 1880s, who actually were
supporters of labor's cause and who were publicly identified
in that way, so he links these
actual social reality of the scenes in the painting with the
Jim Dennis, in the book, 1880s in very interesting ways.
contemporary labor and political also links the painting to
and in the United States. He was often asked, well,
what scene does this represent? and he always answered that
it's not a specific strike, it's a general scene.
Some people thought it was set
were striking at this time. Robert Koehler said no, although
we do know that he traveled to
was preparing this painting and Envisited Birmingham and otherhe
factory centers in England. He said, "I especially wanted
to get the smoke for the
factory towns were famous apparently for being especially
smoky and rather foul air.
strike in America, the famous strike of 1877 was very much in
his mind when he painted this,
represent that strike. although he didn't literally
He knew about the strike, he He was in New York in 1877.
There were even demonstrations read reports about the strike.
even have witnesses, so he was in New York City that he may
in labor in-- veSorry about that, I toucheding
something totally by mistake. He was very aware of what was
happening on the labor scene
where he was a citizen by that transatlantically in the U.S.
was living as an artist. time, and in Germany, where he
would be the early Part two of this five-part story
It's a history of initial public history of the painting.
also of controversy, and exposure, public display, but
history of this painting James Dennis traces now the
It was first exhibited in New York City at the National.
Academy of Design, a very prestigious institution
at that time. In May of 1886, now if you know
your labor history that's a very
because on May 4, 1886, in Chicago occurred the famous
Haymarket Massacre. At the end of an Anarchist
rally, a peaceful rally,
a policeman was killed, the policemen began to fire wildly.
Other policemen were killed from the police firing,
their own gunfire.
prominent leaders of the In the aftermath, the most
were arrested, several of them Anarchist Movement in Chicago
no evidence of their direct werinvolvement in this event.as
At the same time in Milwaukee,
was a march, a labor march, in Milwaukee in which the police
and National Guard under the
governor at that time, direct command of Wisconsin's
fired on the marchers and seven of them were killed.
So this was a very, very tense
at the same moment this painting time in American labor history,
in New York City. ofWell, you can imagineed
the attention it drew.
very much reflected the politics The reviews of it
Conservative reviewers were very critical, "Why are you
inciting violence and portraying violence at a time
when the foundations of our society seem to be collapsing?"
The painting returned to
a Great World's Fair in Paris, Europe then and was displayed at
displayed as part of the the Exposition Universelle,
but the managers of the fair art exhibits in Paris,
They put it up very high. It's called "skied," I guess,
in art history lingo. They skied the painting above
a high doorway so it was really hardly visible and you certainly
couldn't see very clearly some of these details.
Robert Koehler's friends thought
political decision, that they didn't want to upset the
attendees of the fair with this image of contemporary labor
violence, potential violence. It came back to Milwaukee then
and was very well received, local boy makes good.
Then it was displayed at
So it got, you know, the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.
initial few years. major attention in it's
married, in 1895, a young German Meanwhile, Robert Koehler had
prosperous middle class family, wand returned to the United
States and moves to Minneapolis.
Minneapolis School of Fine Arts. He's appointed director of the
the painting with him. Of course he brings
was not-- NIt would be nice to say he
continued to support the cause
sympathetically. of labor and he portrayed it
his painting was quite But no, his work in Minneapolis,
You got a preview a moment ago by accident.
This is a painting of a very
wife, Marie, and their little sbaby Edwin, born in 1898.s
He painted local scenes of the city.
This is called Rainy Evening
If you visit the Minneapolis on Hennepin Avenue .
this on display together with, Institute of Art, you'll find
that I showed earlier. I believe, the self-portrait
paintings, prominent, wealthy women of Minneapolis of his day.
So part three of this five-part story would be a
story of neglect and obscurity. In 1901 Robert Koehler organized
a show of his own work in Minneapolis clearly hoping
to sell some, but nothing sold. The art community of Minneapolis
was rather embarrassed by this, because they really liked him,
he was director of the School of
show their appreciation, a fund Finwas raised, a campaign of
was organized to buy The
I believe the sum was $3000, Strike from Robert Koehler.
as kind of a offering of and this was presented to him
in Minneapolis. Not really because they loved
the painting but it was his best
to show their support for him. known painting and they wanted
community of Minneapolis at that The conservation cultural
named Thomas Walker. time was led by a man
you may be familiar with If you know the Twin Cities
it was named for him. He was a wealthy timber baron
and by no means a supporter of labor unions, but he
nevertheless contributed to this
Koehler, who by this time was fundoing paintings that wereert
not at all controversial. So The Strike, the painting,
went to the Minneapolis Public
fine arts school, the Institute of Arts, and it was hung in a
hallway, a rather obscure part
to distinguish it, of the library, no lighting
Part of the reason Jim Dennis speculates is changing fashion.
These big history paintings of
pretty out of it by the early t20th century when all the newed
streams of modern art were coming along.
Also, Jim Dennis speculates it
political climate in Minneapolis related to the very conservative
We think of Minnesota, in the 1920s and '30s.
and Walter Mondale, you know. Actually, at the time very,
very conservative, anti-union,
dominant in the city. It was certainly not a climate
to give a lot of publicity and
The Depression came, notice to a painting like this.
artists began to paint scenes of labor activism once again.
This is Philip Evergood's painting of 1937
called American Tragedy. Robert Koehler was clearly not
a part of that and his painting,
rediscovered or revived The Strikat that time.en
It continued to hang in obscurity and eventually
the Minneapolis Public Library
a storage room in the basement. Part four of this Wisconsin
story would be the story
Now, I needn't tell this of its rediscovery.
was a time of turbulence on the University of Wisconsin campus,
a time of anti-war activism,
and so on. radical demonstrations,
of at the center of that One of the people who was sort
named Lee Baxandall. was a grad student in English
undergraduate, got his degree here in, I think, '57,
or something, but he stayed on, became a grad student in English
and very much joined at the center of the radical activism
of the time.
called "Studies on the Left," He he published a couple ofal
books himself of Marxist
He was active in founding something called the
Anti-Militarist Ball. Every year, the ROTC would have
a Military Ball, so the anti-war
Anti-Militarist Ball. They got posters that said,
"Do Anti-Militarists have balls?
We're having one this Saturday. Be sure to come!"
Lee Baxandall was in on that. In 1970, he happened to be
walking in Harvard Square,
handed him a newsletter ifrom a local radical group.e
There was a reproduction, of all things, Robert Koehler's
painting, The Strike. Baxandall noticed this
and had some knowledge. Apparently, he did some research
and was able to find out a
and decided he was going to try lito track down this painting.r,
He first thought it was in
Koehler came from. Milwaukee, because that's where
it's in Minneapolis." TSo he goes to Minneapolis,k
he tracks it down to the
Minneapolis Public Library. He finds it in terrible
condition.
There are rips and tears It's been neglected for decades.
but overall, he found it around the bottom of it,
and he purchased it for $750. He spent $2000 moree
to have it restored, and then he wanted it to be displayed.
So he goes to a guy in New York by the name of Moe Foner.
Moe Foner is an old Lefty.
a very well known HAmerican historian todayf
named Eric Foner. Moe Foner runs a gallery at a
Labor Headquarters in New York. The Hospital Workers' Union
in New York has an art gallery. He calls it
the Bread and Roses Gallery.
labor Unions shouldn't only work The idea was, of course, that
their members, they should work for their cultural interests.
Foner is delighted to have
It's big. It's six feet by nine feet.
It's a big, dominant kind of
centerpiece of the Bread and painting, and it becomes a
It's there for some years. Roses Gallery in New York.
an exhibit in the U.S. It actually goes on tour,
It also went on tour to Europe. In 1983, a group of German
activists organized an art
labor art, and they wanted exhibit of American radical art,
The Strikeexhibit. of that
"The Other America," It was called
Michael Harrington's famous book a title they took from
So Baxandall agrees to it's loan, it returns to Germany
once again and it's part of this
all over Europe. exhibit that really toured
to make an arrangement where Well, meanwhile Baxandall tried
by the National Gallery the pin Washington, D.C.quired
It looked promising for a while,
So Baxandall decides to sell it. but that fell through.
in New York City, and this art He places it with an art dealer
package of a number late dealer combines it with a
and landscape paintings, and a 19th century history paintings
buys the whole package. wealThis guy made his moneytroit
apparently in inventing and marketing faucets that you
could control hot and cold, rather that having two separate
faucets.
Well, this Detroit guy bought these paintings, not really
knowing what he was getting, and
with The Strike, certainly not in great sympathy
Meanwhile, Lee Baxandall remains but it goes to Detroit.
and he would like to see it inin a different venue.ny,
He has a curator at the Deutsches Historisches Museum
in Berlin.
Deutsches Historisches Museum Throin Berlin in 1990,the
bought The Strike for
$450,000 and it is now displayed--
I have to jump forward. If I really knew PowerPoint
I'd have all these inserted at the proper place.
It's now displayed at the Deutsches Historisches Museum
on Unter den Linden,
between the museum island Bon one side and the Reichstag,
at the other end. This is the
Deutsches Historisches Museum,
visited it here about and actthree years ago.s and I
It's on the second floor, it has
and then opposite it, is The ki Socialist, that other s own
radical painting that Robert
Well, part five, the Koehler did in the 1880s.
Around 2000, Lee Baxandall book itself, The Strike.
was running a very prosperous wasfamily printing business.ally
He had become a naturist
World Guide to Nude Recreation, "Nude and aNatural Magazine."e
He founded National Nude Week,
The book does not deal with that among other things.
any depth, I'll have to admit. phase in Baxandall's career in
He was suffering from Parkinson's Disease, from which
he died three years ago.
contacted Jim Dennis, Atretired Art Historian heree
a the University, and said, "Could you do something about
the story of this painting?"
boxes of correspondence, He presented to Jim two packed
he had done over the years about of clippings, of research
Jim agreed to try to do the hisomething with it,ting.
and indeed he did.
to approach because he's a first-rate art historian,
and also he was part of that radical scene in Madison
in the '60s and '70s
He has photographs as a grad student.
So he had knowledge not only to document it.
the art history side of it, but about the larger context.
Both its original origins in the
in the 1970s. 18So Jim wrote this book.ry
He approached the University of Wisconsin Press, and I'm
delighted to have it in the Studies in American Thought
and Culture series. I'll just read the last
paragraph of the book.
"Although The Strike
misof organized labor,Era a World War against Fascism,
and much of the combat-plagued
in obscurity in a Minneapolis library and museum storage room,
it emerged into a rapidly changing Post-Modern world,
to experience a succession
before finding a home of qin a history museumtions
in a reunited Berlin
of German history. as one link in the millennia
ahead for an enigmatic painting Buwith such tenacious powersay
of survival, and such a capacity
radically divergent responses in successive generations
of viewers and commentators." Jim did sign four copies of the
book before he left for Europe, so if you're among the first
four purchasers you can actually
Thank you very much. get an autographed copy.
The Wisconsin Book Festival provides...
a lot of good things for folks. And one of the good things
it provides for me
I'm not an art guy, but for many, many, many years I had--
In my office, I have
strike, and boycott buttons and stuff behind my desk.,
And for many, many years, included in that collection was
a postcard-sized reproduction of this painting.
I knew nothing about it,
19th century. I certainly didn't know that the
artist was a Milwaukeean and I
over nine feet by over six feet. didn't know that it was so huge,
comes along, and I didn't know, but found out that somebodyl
actually wrote a history about
was a UW-Madison professor. thisIt's a fascinating book.body
You should read it, because it's
travels of this painting, but it's also kind of a broad sweep
of the social and economic
when the painting was displayed histoand not displayed.times
Some of the ironies involved in this is that the artist's name
is Koehler, and those of
Wisconsin labor history, you who know a little
that the longest strike in the or U.S. labor history, know
was at the Kohler company hisin Kohler, Wisconsin,ates
where they make bathroom
of the Michigan guy with fixtures, but not the ones
is another strange connection. the single-handled faucet, which
that Koehler wound up spending Another strange connection is
Minneapolis as did the painting, really the bulk of his life in
more penetrating and insightful abooks about the labor movement
and the predicament that it finds itself in today is a book
by a born, bred and still living there author,
a labor lawyer actually,
That book is entitled Reviving the Strike.Burns.
If you're into Mysticism
going on here. there are all these things
about George Edwin Taylor, Similarly, our next book
the Wisconsin Book Festival exposed me to this book.
I hadn't known about it.
in U.S. History with a research emphasis in late 19th century
and early 20th century, and I had never heard
of George Edwin Taylor
Certainly I didn't know that a until this book.
again, a Wisconsinite, a biography had been written by,
Bruce Mouser. UW-La The book, of course,essor,
is entitled, For Labor, Race and Liberty.
Emeritus Professor Mouser was an African History
and Asian History professor at UW-La Crosse.
He retired in 1996
filled with research notes. wSome of which alreadyts
had led to publications.
retiring from his professorial He took a year off after
much of anything academic and dinstead volunteered for a year
refinishing furniture at the Salvation Army
thrift store in La Crosse.
cabinets having decided to He then returned to his file
or to burn the whole set. finish som[laughter]hin a year
He published five articles and
African-American topics in 1998 and then four more articles
and two more monographs in the next two years.
While the history of the African
interest of his, his primary slave trade remains a writing
African-American history focus is on the period of
of reconstruction to the rise of independent black politics
at the beginning
He's currently working of the 20th century.
of William Thomas Scott of Cairo, Illinois,
who is also an influential state
at the turn of the last century. and national black Democrat
to Bruce Mouser. With that I'll turn it over
Bruce Mouser: I'm an [applause]
La Crosse in '68, my colleagues thought, well he's interestedo
in black folks so he must be
and they began to feed me data interested in black America,
settlement in La Crosse. about the black American
an interest in that. Gradually I picked up
hear about my history. But you didn't come here to
of you had heard about George Edwin Taylor, how many
Two, three. this guyWonderful.ths ago?
A couple. I recall, three years ago
when I started this,
and I typed in his name Iand I got three responses.b
Today I tried it again
Now that says something about the Web and the ability of
search engines to find things.
George Edwin Taylor I was born a free person--s.
a free person of color in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1857.
His mother was a free black.
His faso he says.slave,
Little Rock at that time
Arkansas was intent to get rid had about 1000 free blacks and
Every state in the South of the free blacks completely.
to do that, but Arkansas basically was attempting
It passed a law in 1859 warequiring all free blacks tod.
leave the state as of January 1,
gathered him and they moved to 1860, and so Taylor's mother
remained there, at least that's where he lived from 1860-1865.
His mother died when he was four years old, 1861 or 1862.
So he's an orphan.
in storehouse boxes. He says he slept
him during that period, but you Obcan imagine a four year old,f
a five year old.
in the winter so it must have been a chore.
Any case, in 1865, a month after
in La Crosse, Wisconsin. the war ended, he ended up
up the Mississippi somehow. He was there for two years.r
At that time he took the name of George Southall.
There was a family in La Crosse,
Southall was a waiter, the Southall family.
paddle wheelers between a bSt. Louis and St. Paul.the
The Southalls left after
behind, so George was a street two years and they left George
At this time kid again at the age of ten.
He was fostered out, the court intervened.
farmer in West Salem, oand that farmer was a fellowk
by the name of Nathan Smith.
I can work this thing.
There's Nathan Smith. Nathan and Sara Smith,
they took care of a number
That was the way you dealt with problem children, and also,
this is the frontier and
In any case, Smith was very theinterested in education.ce.
He made sure that all of his
that he took care of boys, his problem boys,
There was a one-room got an education.
Taylor was required to stay with schoolhouse very close by.
When he was 20, She went to Wayland University..
Now that's not quite Wayland at the present time, in Beaver Dam.
It's called Wayland Academy I think, at the present time.
It's a preparatory school.
it was a university. At that time
and two tracks. IThere was a classical trackum
which was pre-law for all practical purposes,
it was a feeder school. The people who designed Wayland
thought it was going to be
It didn't quite end up that way, another Brown University.
Taylor took the classical bucurriculum, so he studiede.
language, and grammar,
I think, German. and Latin, and Greek,
all of those things, I doubt he did
All we have of his time buis his financial record.e.
Wayland, when I went to them and
back in the 1870s," and they said "No, we didn't."
We dug through their files and
were very surprised, and he's inbecome a hero now for them.ey
In any case, he was there for only two years.
He said he left because of finances
and because of poor health. He went back to La Crosse
in 1879.
At that time he had finally Nowadopted his name. 23.
This was not uncommon.
who his rightful father was. He had no idea really
of George Edwin Taylor He took the name
for the rest of his life. at tOnce he was in La Crossehat
he picked up journalism.
He worked for-- Let's see if I can work this.
He worked for Brick Pomeroy,
of "Pomeroy's Democrat" who wit was also calledowner
"The La Crosse Democrat." Pomeroy was famous, or infamous,
depending on how you want to look at it.
He was very much a Democrat.
of President Lincoln during Hethe Civil War, which got himn
into a bit of difficulty. That was his basic claim.
He had one of the largest circulations of newspapers
in the country. Taylor worked for him as
city editor for a year or two.
newspapers in La Crosse. He wrote for the other
"Interocean" which was a big He even wrote for the Chicago
Then in about 1883-1884, name newspaper for Chicago.
the scene in La Crosse. a fHis name was Frank Powell.on
He became known as White Beaver because he supposedly saved
an Indian tribe from small pox
I forget the details, but in any case Powell came into
La Crosse, and he came in at
to really get organized. a time when labor was beginning
setting up assemblies. The Knights of Labor were
conveniently said he wasn't going to run again, and Powell
jumped in and took advantage
run himself as an Independent, of that and decided to
he didn't call himself labor. sTaylor was a very good editorut
and a good writer, and Taylor latched himself to Powell,
not out in front, but behind the scenes.
He was his campaign manager,
He stayed that way for Powell's two terms as Mayor of La Crosse.
That's 1885,
Here we're to the other topic that we talked about earlier.
The strike in Milwaukee was a major event in Wisconsin labor
history, we all know that.
saw this as his opportunity to expand beyond La Crosse Mayor
to something bigger,
I think very much it's a matter of taking an opportunity,.
but they were also convinced
In La Crosse with Powell, and also with Taylor, they called
the first labor convention of the state in 1886.
This was the La Crosse
The La Crosse Convention sort of Convention.
by surprise. caught the folks in Milwaukee
city in the state at that time. La CrIt's hard to believe.argest
They had called the convention
representative, so many people, there were supposed to be
delegates that were selected
people who were in the Labor according to the number of
Milwaukee rushed to the train, movement.
sure that they controlled the supconvention, and they did.make
Basically, what happened here was that Taylor was able to
maneuver himself into position
party, the Union Labor Party. Now secretary in parties at that
time was an important position. Normally, it was, maybe not the
leader of the party, but it was second in command, so to speak.
He was secretary of the Union Labor Party, 1886-1887,
two years.
He established his own Let me go back.
Advocate" which was the official newspaper, the "Wisconsin Labor
and it was published voice of the Union Labor Party
In the process however of establishing this newspaper,
he sort of had to put himself out front.
This is where he began
because he was black. As long as he could be
a wire-puller or manipulator
but as soon as he emerged from in front then he beganght,
to get static from others who were jealous of his position,
and they began to criticize him for his race,
as well as his stand in labor.
and Pomeroy was abrasive. TaylHe delighted in sarcasm,roy,
and Taylor did the same thing.
Taylor responded in kind, words. I'll use some examples later.
One editor called him a descendant of the cannibal race,
for example,
He just couldn't resist and he and that was too much.
You could say most anything, lost his readership pretty fast.
white people, even at that time. but you could criticize openly,
in La Crosse. BasFor all practical purposeses
he really was outspoken and he left.
He vanishes from La Crosse
in again in Iowa in 1891.ces
There's a transformation
Until that time his emphasis was labor.
It's almost as if Taylor thought
He didn't recognize his color. of himself as--
said La Crosse A friend of mind from Chicago
That's the way he views it. There's a white landscape
out there.
he was the odd one. He was more than that.
He wasn't a barber. He was more than middle class.
He was an editor of a newspaper.
In any case, he was Labor. Maybe that is middle class.
he gave up on that altogether. When he moved to Iowa,
from Labor and he began Notto emphasis race.ved
It's almost as if, when he moved
opportunities in Labor and now to Iowa he'd exhausted his
which was that of race. he In Iowa, he wants to playery
politics as well. To be in Black politics in Iowa
in 1891 you had to be a Republican, because that's where
the votes are.
were Republican because the Republican Party had liberated
them from slavery.
was the party of slavery Plus the Democratic Party
states' rights, so there was little option.
If you want to play politics
He tried that for one year. He tried it, and he was very
successful at it. At the National Convention
of the Republican Party in 1892,
and one of those three he was one of three,
He was one of three to carry was Fred Douglass.
Republican National the Platform Committee, and the
the platform committee rejected every one of their suggestions.
He left it in a huff. He departed the Party and turned
to the Democratic Party as fast as possible.
Because after all,
party closest to his roots. He was a populist in Wisconsin.
He also was Labor in Wisconsin, and at least the Democratic
Party was close to that.
from 1892 to 1904, So for the next period
not within the party itself, Taylor moved up rapidly,
the Negro Bureau but in a parallel part of it,
He couldn't really be a major player in the Democratic Party
because it's strength is in the South at that time.
For there to be an important
structure, the South would Black person within the party
That wasn't a possibility, but rebel, they'd move out.
the Negro Bureau so he did that. you could play politics in
In 1900 he was elected president And he did it very well.
League, which would be the Negro of the National Negro Democratic
But it was also clear Burthat by the 1900,rty.
he wasn't getting any success.
By 1900 you have the That was going nowhere.
white rule in the South. resurrection of complete
throughout the South. Blacks Scientific racismanchised
is very much in vogue everyplace,
lynching. And there seems to be no one
in either party that's
under control. interested in bringing that
This takes us to another period So in 1for Taylor.other--
That's the title of the book. We went from Labor to race,
and now we're finally going to liberty.
That's an independent course
He's given up on Labor, of working within the political
party system. He went to race in a parallel
fashion, along side the Democratic Party, as a part of
it, but not in it really. Then finally in 1904 when the
National Negro Liberty Party
a part of the formation. formed, he wasn't
to be their standard-bearer, But when they asked him
The party promised him he agreed.
This new party promised him that a great deal.
across in the newspapers. That was a folly, obviously,
because newspapers, almost all of them
were party newspapers in one way or another.
They were either
No one was going to publish democrthis party.lican.
He didn't have a newspaper. They promised 300 people that
would go out on the stump to
None of those appeared. They didn't even have the money
to get on the ballot
So it was a disaster. for He lost big-timees.
in this election. He did travel the states and
gave speeches, but it was not very successful.
In the book, I said that
he left it completely. he retired from politics;
I wish I had someone deliver And that's the problem.
All the data, and all I had to two boxes of material!
That would be wonderful. do was go through and sort it.
I discovered a reference That didn't happen in my case.
Taylor marched in the inaugural parade for Woodrow Wilson,
which means he didn't retire
Not as completely as I wrote it. from politics.
is going to be revised. So tI don't knowpter
whether I will do it. I'm sure someone will spot it.
That's the problem with writing the first one about a guy.
[laughter]
I see I do have a few minutes.
I want to read a couple things.
One of the--
but I'm going to do it anyhow, I hadn't intended on doing this,
1886. The platform of the Union Labor
Party in Wisconsin. I'll just read a couple of the
ideas that I think you'll find
One is, "The repeal of all laws that do not bear equally upon
capital and labor; the removal
Delays in discrimination of the administration of justice.
Two, the enactment of laws to compel corporations to pay their
employees weekly in lawful money
week; and giving mechanics and for the labor of the preceding
the product of their labor." laborers a first lien upon
"The abolition of the contract Hmm.
municipal works. system on national, state and
for arbitration between The eemployee and employer,ding
and to enforce the decision of the arbiters.
To prohibit the hiring out
[light laughter] of conflict labor."
levy of a graduated income tax." "The enactment of a law for the
Then, this comes back to our Radical stuff.
"Resolved that we favor law and order and condemn all officials,
anarchists and Communists who seek to advance their interests
or theories in violations of the
and the pursuit of happiness." rights of men to liberty, life
you know. NoYou've got to say somethingn,
after what has gone on before.
Do I have time?
Well, I do.
These are examples of where he
says too much. gets to the spot where he almost
White Beaver, had decided to go to London with Buffalo Bill.
Frank Powell was a fancy shot with a pistol.
So he was going to go and participate in this
for the Queen of England. He decided to do that,
and his brother decided to run
Then Frank Powell decided he didn't like his brother,
so this became a big fight. He opposed his brother's
candidacy.
"Mayor Frank Powell displayed the black hand all through
the campaign that ended last Tuesday.
For his trouble in so doing,
remember him in the future, and the common talk of the
businessmen of the city is that he played anything but
a manly part in the campaign."
"of the Advocate, "was good enough to save him,",
Frank Powell, "from the severe attack of
political paralysis in the state
city on the 13th of July last, convention that was held in this
But because we were honest and also in the -- convention.
colors of the Union Labor Party this spring, and support George
Powell," his brother, "for mayor, against the wishes
of the noted Beaver,
'The Dusky Man.' we were branded by him
but the color is on the surface, With pride, we own our color,
of transparent whiteness and not buried beneath a shroud
of diabolical blackness in the that displays a heavy coat
honorable mayor of La Crosse. bacAll good citizens agreeght,
that he has clearly shown the black hand."
You don't say those things
A friend of mine from Cincinnati in 1880.
in Cincinnati, he'd be dead. said that if he had said that
I think he didn't see himself as in danger by doing that.
In La Crosse, he could be cute
And he did, it was very good. anHe was pretty good at it.s.
I have one more.
he was the editor of a newspaper This is a case where a fellow,
the Commercial Advertiser and Record, and he had called
Taylor a descendant of the cannibal race.
He goes on, he says, "We have but three causes for regret.
Not that the color of our skin
receive a liberal patronage from is black, not that we do not
vicinity, and not that the the people of La Crosse and
our business, but because Cthe editorial for -- Wisconsin
is scourged by the 'It' that writes the Commercial
Advertiser, because the businessmen of La Crosse
will be humbug to some extent by this 'It,' and because
the same 'It' is a disgrace,
fraternity, but also to the noble race he represents.
Though you are only an 'It,'
And when you want to write on cannibalism again, come over and
borrow our encyclopedia, so that
with a little common sense. youYou are externally white,rged
but God only knows
[laughs] the color of your heart."
That's it. Those are fighting words.
[applause]