Black Quotidian: Everyday History in African-American Newspapers

July 25, 1981

On July 25, 1981, the New York Amsterdam News’s headline declared, “Job War Erupts!!” The article reported that black and Hispanic construction workers were protesting the Trump Tower construction site in Manhattan, chanting “We want jobs!”  “The Koch administration, the New York City Police Department and the popular midtown fashionable district were unprepared for the high noon showdown with a coalition of over 400 minority construction and community workers who were demanding jobs on 3 construction sites in the area,” Peter Noel wrote. “The protestors attempt to wring some sort of compassion from the workers on the the Trump Tower construction site met with no sympathy. Squads of white hardhats rained down blows and repudiations on the demonstrators led by the controversial Black Economic Survival, a Bronx based organization seeking jobs for Blacks and Hispanics in the construction industry.”

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