DOI: 10.1111/ajps.70090 ISSN: 0092-5853
Structure and agency in emancipatory reform: A blueprint from a Black union
Benjamin T. LynerdAbstract
The National Labor Convention of 1869, the first of its kind for African American workers, yielded a grand strategy for achieving full emancipation, in which those long subjected to domination might attain durable independence. Drawing upon decades of Black republican thought, this agenda combined macro‐level reforms targeting agrarian and industrial monopolies with micro‐level interventions into the habits of the working class. While the project fell short, its multivalent approach nevertheless offers republican theorists today a framework for better understanding the structural dynamics of domination and how to overcome them.