Congratulations to James B. Wall, a doctoral candidate in history at the University of Georgia, who was awarded the 2018 Southern Labor Studies Association's Robert H. Zieger Award in Southern Labor Studies. The award committee noted that Wall's essay, "'Boss is Still Boss': Johnson v. City of Albany and the Fight for Affirmative Action in the Black Belt," demonstrated a powerful blend of rigorous research, compelling argumentation, and concern for social justice." 

The Southern Labor Studies Association awards the Robert H. Zieger Prize at the Southern Labor Studies Conference for the best unpublished essay in southern labor studies written by a graduate student or early career scholar, journalist, or activist. The Zieger Prize includes a $500 award.

The Robert H. Zieger Prize was established in 2013 with the cooperation of the Zieger family and members of SLSA. The prize is named in honor of the late Robert H. Zieger–teacher, scholar, and tireless union activist. Zieger was a prolific, award-winning writer whose books include For Jobs and Freedom: Race and Labor in America since 1865 and The CIO, 1935-1955, and three field-defining edited volumes on southern labor history. Zieger served as an officer in the North Central Florida Central Labor Council and an organizer for the United Faculty of Florida. Along with his wife of fifty years, Gay Zieger, an English professor Santa Fe College, he maintained a strong commitment to social justice his entire life. Many of his former students went on to become labor organizers. SLSA hopes that the spirit of Zieger’s combination of rigorous scholarship and his dedicated commitment to improving the lives of working-class people will live on in this prize.