Community vs. Capital: How the Ideals of Community Caused Religion to be the Driving Force in the Attempt to Save Youngstown’s Steel Industry

This paper details the ways that community and labor intersect, focusing on how labor affects the social and political aspects of everyday life. This done through analyzing the early history of Youngstown, Ohio and the emergence of the steel industry within the city. We also look to religion as the sense of community which helps to define American capitalist practices as immoral. Youngstown was profoundly affected by the closing of steel mills in the 1970s, effecting the economic, political, and social facets of life within the city. The day that lives on in the memory of Youngstown is now known as Black Monday, a day when a New Orleans conglomerate decided to end the reign of Youngstown’s most prominent industry, steel. The communal response to this event was swift, and strengthened by the support of the religious officials of the city. Drawing from previous social movements lead by religious individuals the Ecumenical Coalition of the Mahoning Valley spearheaded the efforts to buyback the Campbell Works steel mill from the Lyke’s corporation to save the economy of Youngstown from falling too far, and to save the community from the harmful social effects of deindustrialization. The movement eventually failed, but the memory of what it stood for lives on in the memories of Youngstown citizens