Corpus Christi Longshoremen's Unions

The separation was also a bargain. Black dockworkers were often used as strikebreakers, which forced the International Longshoremen's Association to enlist them, but only in separate locals. Texas locals divided available work fifty-fifty. Black longshoremen held many more offices than they would have in a mixed local, and rotating work among gangs helped cut casual labor. When the federal government argued the practice violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, Black locals backed the union. A 1971 Texas district court found a violation but declined to order a merger, and the locals integrated in 1983.

What the plaque says

Corpus Christi Longshoremen's Unions When the deepwater port of Corpus Christi opened in September 1926, area dock workers formed two racially segregated labor union affiliates of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA). Caucasian workers formed ILA Local 1224 and African American workers organized ILA Local 1225. These two groups reached an agreement to work opposite ends of each ship entering the port. Work was inconsistent and physically challenging, and the two locals met monthly, participated in contract and workload negotiations, engaged in strikes and suffered lockouts when those negotiations broke down. ILA Local 1225 became a pillar in the African American community, constructing a union hall in 1930 that was used for local events and meetings. Local 1225 provided scholarships, organized picnics and supported local churches, as well as providing a respectable living for their families. Local 1224 also built a union meeting hall in 1938 and supported the community. The two locals met separately over the years, though delegates from each met jointly in periodic local councils, conventions and contract meetings. In 1975, the U.S. Fifth District Court of Appeals ruled that the segregated ILA locals must merge as they violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The ruling took effect in 1983 and applied to all Texas longshoremen and port warehouse workers. The two locals merged into one and elected new officers. The segregated nature of the ILA locals reflected larger societal attitudes regarding race in mid-twentieth century Texas, though Corpus Christi dock workers at times bridged the racial divide when fighting for improved pay and work conditions. The day-to-day work by these longshoremen -- their challenges and successes -- made the Port of Corpus Christi the engine of the Coastal Bend economy. (2018)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Art Museum of South Texas — 0.2 mi
  Philip Johnson's 1972 museum on the Corpus Christi bayfront, joined in 2006 by Ricardo Legorreta's Miller Wing, holding more than 2,000 works mostly from Texas and the Americas.
• Texas State Aquarium — 0.4 mi
  A nonprofit aquarium on the tip of Corpus Christi Beach built around the Gulf and the Caribbean, with the largest coastal wildlife rescue center in Texas behind the exhibits.
• USS Lexington Museum on the Bay — 0.6 mi
  An Essex-class carrier of 1943 moored off North Beach, the Blue Ghost that Tokyo Rose kept reporting sunk, and the Navy's training carrier for nearly three decades after.
• Mirador de la Flor — 0.9 mi
  Corpus Christi's bayfront memorial to Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, the Tejano singer from this city, killed in 1995 at twenty-three, visited by about thirty thousand people a year.

More markers nearby

• Jalufka-Govatos House — steps away
• Theodore Merchant Lawrence (January 16, 1861-August 10, 1941) — steps away
• McCampell House — steps away
• Irishtown — steps away