Tampa’s Longshoremen

Fred Hearns, Curator of Black History at the Tampa Bay History Center.
Fred Hearns, Curator of Black History at the Tampa Bay History Center.

In the past, ships filled with everything from bananas to bags of cement had to be loaded and unloaded by hand. It could take scores of men several days to fill or empty one ship. The work on Tampa’s docks was grueling, but unionized longshoremen jobs were highly sought after by African-American men who had few opportunities to earn a decent wage.