Radical Unionism in the Midwest, 1900-1950
By Rosemary Feurer
University of Illinois Press, 2006

Why radicals and community unionism mattered in the workers movement

The painting, by housepainter-turned-artist Jones, depicts one of the many protests of the unemployed in St. Louis in the 1930s. Jones modeled the character at the front on William Sentner, whose experiences in the unemployed and early 1930s labor organizing inspired a vision of unionism that he and others carried forward into the CIO. William Sentner became President of UE District 8.