Cedric de Leon
Author - 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
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
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
Absorbing and rigorous, Freedom Train further cements de Leon's status as a leading scholar of race, social movements, and U.S. labor.
—Michael Rodriguez-Muñiz, Assoc. Professor of Sociology, UC Berkeley
See Upcoming Appearances
Come hear Cedric speak at a local event, book store, or university near you!
September 6, 2025, "Solidarity is a Verb" featuring Gloria Browne-Marshall, A Protest History of the United States, Cedric de Leon, Freedom Train: Black Politics and the Story of Interracial Labor Solidarity, and Elizabeth Todd-Breland, I Didn't Come Here to Lie: My Life and Education, in Conversation with Sylvia Ewing, Printers Row Lit Fest, Plymouth Court Stage, Chicago, 12PM CST
September 12, 2025, "Strategies for Revitalizing Labor" featuring Cedric de Leon, Freedom Train: Black Politics and the Story of Interracial Labor Solidarity and Eric Blanc, We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big, Janice H. Levin Building, 94 Rockefeller Rd, Piscataway, Rutgers University,
12-2PM EST
About Cedric de Leon
Cedric de Leon is Professor of Sociology and Labor Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has published six books. His newest, Freedom Train, with University of California Press, is about the role of Black labor activists in desegregating the U.S. labor movement. 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.