2008 Award Recipient
LAURIE B. GREEN
Laurie B. Green Wins 2008 Philip Taft Labor History Prize!
The 2008 Taft Prize committee, in collaboration with the Labor and Working Class History Association (LAWCHA), is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2008 Taft Award in Labor and Working-Class History is Laurie B. Green, for her deeply researched and wide-ranging book, Battling the Plantation Mentality: Memphis and the Black Freedom Struggle, published by the University of North Carolina Press. Green’s book is a highly original contribution to the labor historiography of race, gender, and class in an important southern city during a crucial period for civil rights movement mobilization at the grassroots. Especially significant is Green’s examination of the occupational structure and organization of labor in Memphis over three decades, assessing the composition, orientation, and outlook of the Memphis working class as a whole. By showing how the slogan “I am a Man” had great meaning for women, too, Green changes how we think about gender relations in the civil rights movement, in the labor movement, and among working-class women and men.
The Taft Prize comes with a cash award of $1,500. It is named in honor of Professor Philip Taft, an eminent labor historian and economist, who made outstanding contributions to the field of labor and working-class history during his lengthy career. The prize competition is administered by the ILR School at Cornell University and has been held annually since 1978. The members of the 2008 Prize committee were: Jefferson Cowie, Ileen DeVault (chair), Nancy Gabin, Stephen Pitti, and Joe Trotter.
