Joseph Lane Kirkland (1922-1999) served as a leader in the American labor union movement for his entire career. He was also a political activist supporting civil rights, equal opportunities for women, and a strong defense.

Joseph Lane Kirkland was born in Camden, South Carolina, on March 12, 1922, the son of a local cotton buyer and a socially prominent mother. He was reared in Newberry, South Carolina, where he attended local schools with the children of the textile mill workers. His association with the mill hands' children, Kirkland later remembered, first stirred his social conscience. After graduation from high school in 1940 he tried to enlist in the Canadian air force. Rejected, he returned home to study for a year at Newberry College. In 1941 he joined the United States Merchant Marine, which sent him to study at the newly opened U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York, from...