Lykes-Youngstown Corporation Collection

Walter Black (1895- )

Description:  Glass plate negative of Walter Black (1895- ), Youngstown, Ohio steelworker. Black held several positions at the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company's Hubbard blast furnaces including common laborer, cinder shaper, scrap man, stove tender, assistant blower, and blast furnace foreman. He was one of the first African Americans to be promoted to foreman in the Youngstown District. On August 16, 1920, A.S. Morris was overcome by poisonous gas while working at the company's blast furnace. Black climbed to the top of the furnace and carried Morris to ground level, then revived Morris by applying mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. This photograph of Black was taken shortly after that event.