We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2015
During the early fall of 1958, Lester Bailey, a labor organizer and field representative of the Citizens' Committee against Proposition 18, found himself engaged in an unusual activity as he sat in the committee's offices on Sutter Street in San Francisco. He was writing a song: “The Right to Work Blues.” “I'd hate to see / My weekly pay go down,” Bailey wrote.
I'd hate to see
That Right to Work Made law!
Because the day it is
They'll pay me like they paid my Paw!
Mississippi has it
Georgia, Texas do!
If it comes to California
I'll have to leave here too!
Oh I'd hate to see
That Right to Work made law
Cause I can't live on
What they paid my Paw!
Got the Right to Work Blues
Scared as I can be!
I'm goin' to vote NO! on 18
And keep California free!
By choosing an African American musical idiom – the song was to be sung to the tune of W. C. Handy's immensely popular “St. Louis Blues” – Bailey hinted at the identity of his intended audience. The substance of his lyrics also suggested that it was the black voters of California whom he wished to convince to oppose Proposition 18, the right-to-work proposition that would be on the November ballot. African American workers had left the South to come to California in search of the prosperity that had been denied to their parents. Yet the passage of Proposition 18 would bring the South to them, Bailey argued. It would undermine their prosperity and force them to move on once again to preserve both their material comfort and their freedom.
Les Bailey was not the only trade unionist reaching out to the African American community during the 1958 campaign. Indeed, he was part of a concerted effort to ensure that black voters would reject Proposition 18. This effort came into being because the proponents of the proposition had targeted the African American community. They believed that black workers, many of whom had suffered discrimination at the hands of labor unions, could be convinced to vote for a ballot measure that would weaken organized labor in the state.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
