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Cedric de Leon
Writer - Speaker - Educator
A work of original, convincing, and positively gripping scholarship. A novel analysis of the conditions that advanced the cause of interracial labor solidarity, placing Black activists and the Black community at the center of the story.
—Kim Voss, Professor of Sociology,
UC Berkeley
de Leon does what few historians have in centering the Black worker as a player both in the politics of the Black Freedom Movement and in organized labor.
—Bill Fletcher Jr., activist, coauthor of Solidarity Divided
Praise & Reviews
Freedom Train provides critical context for the current task of mapping a path to multiracial democracy in the United States.
—Erica Smiley, Executive Director,
Jobs with Justice
Instead of overlooking tensions between different segments of Black labor...de Leon focuses on internal tensions, suggesting that debates between centrist and more leftist activists helped strengthen what would become a much larger movement, pushing the labor movement to become more inclusive.
—Gay Seidman, Professor of Sociology, Univ of Wisconsin Madison
As Black elites rise to higher positions of mainstream electoral power, Freedom Train provides lessons in how to ensure that they are accountable to the Black working class.
—Steven Pitts, cofounder of the National Black Worker Center
de Leon names, centers and gives a platform to Black labor and laborers so often erased in traditional storytelling of big labor unity.
—Tamara Lee, Assoc. Professor of Labor Studies, Rutgers University
See Upcoming Appearances
Come hear Cedric speak at an event near you!
September 30, 2026. Freedom Train: Black Politics & the Story of Interracial Labor Solidarity, Department of Sociology, Texas A&M University
February 25, 2027. Freedom Train: Black Politics & the Story of Interracial Labor Solidarity, Department of Sociology, Grinnell College
Stay tuned for an event near you!
About Cedric de Leon
Cedric de Leon is Professor of Sociology and Labor Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His newest book, Freedom Train, is about the Black workers and activists who desegregated American unions. It won the American Book Award in 2026. From 2018 to 2022, Cedric directed the UMass Amherst Labor Center, the country's premier worker-side graduate program in Labor Studies. He was the first person of color to do so. Prior to becoming an academic, he was an elected leader and staff organizer in the U.S. labor movement.