USS Reuben James sinking, October 31, 1941. 

See this image and listen to Woodie Guthrie sing his song “The Sinking of the Reuben James” in Sailor Stories, Sailor Songs, the last of a series of exhibits celebrating the founding of the National Maritime Union and its extraordinary battle to break the color line on US ships in the 1930s.

Other exhibits in the series include, Why Unions? Art from the National Maritime Union, on graphic art from the period, Paul Robeson and the NMU, with songs from Paul Robeson, and Fighting Jim Crow on the High Seas, on the long haunting story of the Fall Strike that built the NMU.

Photo from the National Archives.