Standing Tall: Willie Long Vs. U.S. Government At Mare Island Naval Shipyard

Author(s): Jake Sloan

$24.99

Pre-order Information Shipping

Series: America Through Time
Binding: Paperback
ISBN: 9781634994699
Related Topics: America Through Time, Indiana, Biography, Midwest, West, Latest

DESCRIPTION

Standing Tall recalls a period in the early 1960s that is part of the social justice continuum in the U.S. This is the story of how Willie Long led a protest for economic and social justice at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California.

The “Original 21ers” were a courageous group of African American workers willing to risk everything to create change. The inequities experienced at work and the churning energy of the Civil Rights Movement inspired them.

This small group of men did the unthinkable by direct action against the U.S. Government. They challenged the largest West Coast United States naval base to provide equal opportunities and wages and WON! Through their actions, the “Original 21ers” influenced the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which, in part, prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

In so doing, their protest and action built part of the cornerstone upon which our twenty-first century economic justice movements are built.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

Jake Sloan has spent most of his adult life working in the areas of civil rights and affirmative action, advocating and fighting for income equality for African Americans. After serving honorably in the military, he started his career as a pipefitter, mainly working on the construction of nuclear submarines. After leaving that field, while attending college, he worked primarily in programs directed at equal access and equality in training and pay for African Americans in the construction building trades of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Area. Since 1985, he has continued that work as owner of Davillier-Sloan, Inc., one of California’s largest labor-management consulting firms, with a focus on the construction industry. Mr. Sloan holds an M.A. in history from San Francisco State University. The writing of this book, and the latter stages of the research that went into it, are an outgrowth of his doctoral studies in Higher Education and Social Change at the Western Institute for Social Research (WISR) in Berkeley, California.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Pages: 112
Publisher: America Through Time
Imprint: America Through Time
Series: America Through Time
Publication Date: 31st July 2023
State: California
ISBN: 9781634994699
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Activism & Social Justice
HISTORY / United States / State & Local / West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY)
POLITICAL SCIENCE / Civil Rights

REVIEWS