The
idea of an organization designed to promote southern labor history goes
back to 1966, when a group of Southern Historical Association (SHA)
members who had been meeting annually decided to form their own
organization called the Association of Southern Labor Historians (ASLH).
By 1972 the ASLH had largely disbanded, but Merl E. Reed and Gary M.
Fink, of Georgia State University, initiated a biennial conference to
continue its past efforts. The Southern Labor History Conference—later
named the Southern Labor Studies Conference—first met in Atlanta in the
spring of 1976 and sponsored sessions with historians, activists, and
labor leaders. Since then, labor activists and academics have met to
exchange scholarship and experiences at the biennial Southern Labor
Studies Conference.
In
May 2007 at the joint conference convened at Duke University by the
Labor and Working Class History Association (LAWCHA) and the Southern
Labor Studies Conference, participants specializing in southern labor
created the Southern Labor Studies Association to put the conference on a
more secure footing. Professor Heather Thompson was elected as SLSA’s
first president. Since then the association has expanded to promote the
study, teaching, and preservation of the history of southern labor
through a variety of activities.
The
mission of the Southern Labor Studies Association is to promote the
study, teaching, and preservation of the history of southern labor by
activities that:
Encourage dialogue and discussion about key issues and events relevant to the past and present of labor in the U.S. South;
Enhance connections between academics and labor activists in the U.S. South;
Organize the Southern Labor Studies Conference as well as sessions on southern labor and working-class history at other venues;
Connect
graduate students working on southern labor and working-class studies
with one another and advanced scholars within and across academic
disciplines;
Promote the preservation of materials related to southern labor and working class history;
Promote working-class history in public school curricula and provide resources for public school teachers.
