Toad and Activism

Merriam-Webster defines nocturne as a dreamy,  pensive composition for piano.  This presentation of the Edgar Thompson Works is a visual and aural nocturne.

The Edgar Thompson plant was Andrew Carnegie’s first mill.  His first Free Library is within a long walk.  Both are effectively on the border between two Allegheny County boroughs – Braddock and North Braddock.

On the 1300 block of Bell Avenue in North Braddock a few decades ago, there were Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Ruthenian, Slovak, African-American, and Jewish families.  The father of the latter had a tattoo on his right arm …Every ethnic group had its own church.  African-American, Croatian, German, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Polish, Ruthenian, Scots, Serbian, and Slovak parishes flourished.  These were the most visible symbols of North Braddock’s demographic riches.  But an even more powerful one was membership in unions.

The USW, UMW, IBEW, and other unions reflected the diversity just described, and did more.  By wrapping their arms around second- and third-generation Americans, by showing them that, whatever their origins, they had far more in common than in opposition, unions created a powerful force for tolerance and non-violent activism.

Toad would have appreciated that activism …