During the First World War, during the Black Diaspora, Damien Leake travels north to get a job in the Chicago stockyards. He's ambitious. He hopes to become a butcher, and buys a knife for the job. But while many of the stockyard workers are off in the Great War, the workers in the stockyards organize. Leake is skeptical at first, He doesn't trust the White men who are leading the organizing, and the cost of union membership is immense given the war-enriched 50-cents-an-hour wages. But he comes around, and even after the war ends and the government controls come off, he remains a staunch union man.
This episode of American Playhouse is directed by Bill Duke, and is told in a straightforward fashion, with a lot of period details; the large number of Polish workers is indicates by music and the simultaneous translation of the leadership's speeches into that language. Other well-known performers include Alfre Woodward, Moses Gunn, and Dennis Farina.
This episode of American Playhouse is directed by Bill Duke, and is told in a straightforward fashion, with a lot of period details; the large number of Polish workers is indicates by music and the simultaneous translation of the leadership's speeches into that language. Other well-known performers include Alfre Woodward, Moses Gunn, and Dennis Farina.