Episode 11: Danielle Phillips-Cunningham

In this episode of Black Work Talk, Steven Pitts and his co-host, Sheri Davis, talk with Danielle Phillips-Cunningham, Associate Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at Texas Woman’s University. Danielle has been at the forefront of recent scholarship highlighting the efforts of Black working-class women to control their lives. Her book, “Putting Their Hands on Race: Irish Immigrant and Southern Black Domestic Workers,” builds upon the work of Tera W. Hunter ("To ’Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women’s Lives and Labors after the Civil War") to tell the story of the organizing efforts of Black domestic workers. Her newest research focuses on the activities of Nannie Helen Burroughs through organizations such as the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs and the National Association of Wage Earners. Her work has important implications for today’s organizing as well. We spoke about this work on the show.For further information, see:Putting Their Hands on Race: Irish Immigrant and Southern Black Domestic WorkersThe Washington Post - On Labor Day, we remember the Black women who helped win labor rightsThe Washington Post - The long history of Black women organizing in Georgia might decide Senate control

Om Podcasten

Black Work Talk is a show that elevates the voices of Black labor, workers, leaders, activists, and intellectuals in discussions on the connections between race, labor, capitalism and culture in the struggle for progressive governing power. On season three of Black Work Talk, new hosts Bianca Cunningham and Jamala Rogers explore the impact of 2023’s strike wave in conversations with rank and file workers from unions that have fought or are still fighting for better, more equitable contracts in 2023; including the UAW, Teamsters, Writers Guild of America and more. Where did the energy for this wave of labor movements come from, what does it mean for black workers, and where does it go from here? They also open the conversation by calling in the 90% of American workers who have yet to organize in their workplace with an ongoing accessible and educational series on the process of organizing and filing to start a union from scratch.