Union members march to prevent passage of Taft-Hartley Act, June 1947, Los Angeles
1 media/102-1423-thumb.jpg 2020-10-20T14:56:22-07:00 Curtis Fletcher 3225f3b99ebb95ebd811595627293f68f680673e 38151 2 Photograph of a protest march along Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, featuring picketers from labor unions denouncing the Taft-Hartley bill. Two marchers carry a sign with the words "All labor, all progressive A. F. of L., Railroad Brotherhood, C.I.O., Join to fight the Taft-Hartley Slave Bill." Despite the protests, the bill was adopted, and the Labor Management Relations Act (commonly known as the "Taft-Hartley Act") became law in 1947. The law posed numerous restraints on trade unions, including a well publicized clause requiring all union officers to sign oaths that they were not Communists. The law also banned mass picketing and secondary boycotts, abolished the union closed shop, and authorized employers to interfere in workers' attempts to join a union. plain 2020-12-03T08:40:46-08:00 USC Digital Library 1947-06 photographs Curtis Fletcher 3225f3b99ebb95ebd811595627293f68f680673eThis page is referenced by:
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2020-11-13T09:11:06-08:00
Union members march to prevent passage of Taft-Hartley Act, Los Angeles, June 1947
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This photograph depicts a demonstration held in June of 1947 in Los Angeles against the passing of a monumental piece of labor legislation, the Taft-Hartley Act.
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2020-11-22T09:14:17-08:00
This photograph depicts a demonstration held in June of 1947 in Los Angeles against the passing of a monumental piece of labor legislation, the Taft-Hartley Act. The bill was designed to place restraints on labor unions and came during the age of McCarythism otherwise known as the Second Red Scare. The legislation aimed to ban mass picketing and secondary boycotts all of which were common practices within labor unions before the bill was announced. Additionally, the bill had a clause that required all union officers to pledge that they were not Communists. The Taft-Hartley Bill would fundamentally change the power that labor unions held and would give power back to the corporations, which struck a chord with many labor union members. Thousands of workers took to the streets to oppose the new bill with signs and posters claiming the bill to be the “Taft-Hartley Slave Bill.” However, even with this very public and very widespread backlash against the bill, it still passed and became law in 1947. This photograph captures many themes in not only American history but also the history of photography. Taken from the California Eagle newspaper, the photo presents an early example of photojournalism from an African-American publication. Both the photograph and the publication in which it was published and distributed gives vital insight into the growing progress of both the medium and the country. In an age where the Civil Rights Movement was just beginning and when halftone reproduction and mass distribution of images were also on the rise, the photograph produced by the California Eagle of protests against a bill meant to combat the growing fears of a McCarthyist America is not only a great depiction of American history but also the history of photography as widely distributed medium.
