We Say Fight Back! How a Harlem community organization helped change the face of NYC construction

by Damaso Reyes, AmNews Executive Editor In early August of 1973, a short article titled “Judge Rules Steamfitters Must Admit Minorities” ran on page six of the& Amsterdam News. It explained that the& Steamfitters Local 638& “must admit Black and Spanish-surnamed applicants exclusively for ninety days effective August 6.” The brief story mentions that “Fight Back, Inc., headed by& Jim Haughton, is a local community-based organization that has been effective in getting construction jobs for Blacks, Spanish-surnamed, and other minorities in New York City.” Two years earlier, we published an article titled “Black steamfitters demand equal chance to work here,” which reported that the “members of Fight Back vow not to allow the Steamfitters Union to proceed on any job uptown unless the workers are integrated. “We are tired of the discriminatory practice of the Steamfitters union and of all the trade unions which make it a practice to hire Black and Puerto Rican workers last and lay them off as soon as the work slows down,” Haughton was quoted as saying. Those two articles, which ran 18 months apart, highlight the struggles that New Yorkers of color faced in integrating the skilled and construction trades and their unions. But...