To mark the publication of a revised and expanded edition of Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly, author Peter Cole is joined by Professor of Law Ahmed White to discuss the legacy of an American working class hero.

In the early twentieth century, when many US unions disgracefully excluded black and Asian workers, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) warmly welcomed people of color. A brilliant union organizer and a humorous orator, Benjamin Fletcher (1890-1949) was a tremendously important and well-loved African American member of the IWW during its heyday. For years, acclaimed historian Peter Cole has carefully researched the life of Ben Fletcher.

Peter Cole is a professor of history at Western Illinois University in Macomb and a research associate in the Society, Work and Development Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Cole is the author of the award-winning Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area and Wobblies on the Waterfront: Interracial Unionism in Progressive-Era Philadelphia. He coedited Wobblies of the World: A Global History of the IWW. He is the founder and codirector of the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project.

Ahmed White is a professor at the University of Colorado School of Law where he teaches labor and criminal law. His research focuses on the history of labor repression and the role of law and the state in shaping class struggles. White is the author of The Last Great Strike: Little Steel, the CIO, and the Struggle for Labor Rights in New Deal America.