The Color of Blood / La Couleur du sang
by Bill Duke
Chicago 1917, World War I. Many jobs are created, attracting an important labour force : immigrants of Polish, German, Irish origins but also black workers from the South.
Frank Custer and his friend Thomas Jessua leave Mississipi to try and escape the poverty and segregation which cripple their lives in the South. Frank hopes he’ll soon be able to have his wife and kids join him in « the promised land ». He gets a job in the stockyards. His friend Thomas joins the army. Eventually, Frank gets to know Heavy Williams, a stout and boastful black farm labourer from Western Texas who distrusts white foremen as well as European-born unionists even if they try to open up the Union to the blacks.
Frank breaks away from Heavy Williams and becomes a friend of Bill Bremer, of German origin, who is a shop-steward. Unlike other black workers, Frank Joins the Union.
The post-war crisis will multiply the number of jobless people and turn the stockyards into places of racial tension until in 1919 Chicago witnesses tremendous riots.
Frank Custer and his friend Thomas Jessua leave Mississipi to try and escape the poverty and segregation which cripple their lives in the South. Frank hopes he’ll soon be able to have his wife and kids join him in « the promised land ». He gets a job in the stockyards. His friend Thomas joins the army. Eventually, Frank gets to know Heavy Williams, a stout and boastful black farm labourer from Western Texas who distrusts white foremen as well as European-born unionists even if they try to open up the Union to the blacks.
Frank breaks away from Heavy Williams and becomes a friend of Bill Bremer, of German origin, who is a shop-steward. Unlike other black workers, Frank Joins the Union.
The post-war crisis will multiply the number of jobless people and turn the stockyards into places of racial tension until in 1919 Chicago witnesses tremendous riots.
