History is a strange thing. When we learn it in school, it seems so straightforward, a progression of people and events. As we get older, we realize that history is often very selective, that a lot is dismissed or deliberately left out, that indeed, the victors do write the history.
Coordinating this 100th anniversary project has confirmed that belief. Over and over again the volunteers on this project discovered -- or in some cases rediscovered -- working people whose accomplishments and contributions have been ignored. And occasionally, as in the case of the story on Charles James, we have uncovered people who were totally lost to history.
How this story came about is a testament to the dedication of the volunteers on this project and the unique spirit of collaboration that has marked much of the work.
None of us had heard of Charles James until one day early in 1997 at one of our Anniversary Committee meetings. Art McWatt, who has chronicled St. Paul's African-American community, said he had been paging through old copies of the Appeal, a black community newspaper, and had come across an obituary for a labor leader named Charles James. The obituary said he had been president of the St. Paul Trades & Labor Assembly.
This immediately piqued our interest, since to our knowledge there had never been an African-American president of the Assembly. Dave Riehle, a member of the United Transportation Union and an active historian in his own right, took on the task of exploring the history of Charles James. That turned out to be no simple matter. Despite James' status within the labor movement, he had apparently left no memoirs, no diaries, no personal papers -- or at least none that could be found so far.
Nor did he have any direct descendants. So Dave set about searching through public records and newspaper archives, looking for clues. He has traveled to Madison, Wis., to go through the records of the Boot and Shoe Workers union. He has searched for people who might have known the James' family, enlisting the help of McWatt and James Griffin, another leader of the black community. He has scoured the files of the Minnesota Historical Society and other historical groups.
His greatest resources have been the labor newspapers and the black newspapers. Dave has literally poured over hundreds of pages of the Union Advocate from the early part of the century. The project has been all-consuming, taking up much of his time when he is not working on the railroad, becoming an obsession to the point that he woke up one morning and realized he had been dreaming about trying to find Charles James.
His search is not complete. In some ways, it has raised more questions than answers. But all of us on the Anniversary Committee encouraged him to tell the story now, while continuing to look for more information to shed light on James and his enigmatic life.
We are indebted to Dave for the time he has taken to research and write this account -- time that no "official" historian, no chronicler of the labor movement, had taken before. We are also indebted to Art McWatt, his love of his community and its publications, and to serendipity. If he hadn't turned to that particular page of that particular newspaper, we may never have learned of Charles James.
Like I said, history is a strange thing.
Barb Kucera was editor of the Union Advocate from December 1986 until July 2000.
Related articles
When labor knew a man named Charles James
Events in the life of Charles James
Writings of C.E. James - excerpts
Union Advocate history series main page
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