CHICAGO—More than 1,000 Black workers, young and old, marched on a construction site on the South Side here Sept. 30, demanding an end to racist hiring practices where new Meijer and Menards stores are being built.

“I’ve been out of work for two-and-a-half years. Something’s got to change,” said Brian Essex, among the hundreds of unemployed union construction workers who turned out for the protest.

Construction is one of the industries hardest hit by the capitalist crisis. Like many other jobs, Blacks tend to be the last hired and first fired. Chicago’s rate of Black unemployment stands officially at 19 percent, third highest in the country.

—LAURA ANDERSON AND BETSY FARLEY