Although the American Federation of Labor did not profess racial
discrimination as a deliberate national policy, many of its
individual trade unions did, and, because of its federated
structure, the A. F. of L. had no power over local discriminatory
practices. Whites in skilled trades used unions to maintain an
exclusive control in those trades, and they deliberately strove
to relegate blacks to the lower ranks of industrial labor. Barred
from the road to advancement, black labor became a permanent
industrial proletariat.
The Freedmen's Bureau was the one federal attempt to raise the
social and economic standing of the ex-slave. Along with the
American Missionary Association, the Freedmen's Bureau did
significant work in education. Hundreds of teachers staffed
scores of schools and brought some degree of literacy and job
skills to thousands of pupils. However, beyond the field of
education, the bureau did little except to provide temporary
help. Begun as a war measure, when the Radical Republicans came
into control, they put it on a more permanent footing. Even
liberals, however, were not prepared to support a long-term
social experiment, and, after some half dozen years, the Bureau
was terminated.
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