This Week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: The Crab Pickers Strike; Mural of a Black Wobbly
Chris Garlock | Published on 5/18/2024
In 1938, 600 crab pickers struck for higher wages and a union in Crisfield, Maryland; on today’s
show, an audio postcard from the May 10 dedication of an official state historical marker commemorating the strike.
Then, we talk with historian Peter Cole, author of Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly, whose work inspired the new Ben Fletcher mural being dedicated on May 18 in Philadelphia.
Our “Story Behind the Song” feature returns today with Emily Jo Tanzey, one of our 2023 Great Labor Arts Exchange song contest winners; today she tells us the story behind her song “Solidarity is the Only Thing We Need.”
And, on Labor History in Two: The year was 1913; that was the day Philadelphia longshoremen walked off the job.
The Labor Heritage Power Hour, hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant, airs every Thursday at 1p on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC.