[1] According to Reese, a Communist Party organizer came to his home to ask him to become active in the Amalgamated Association as his assignment.
When he was warned that he would be confronted with Jim crow type racism, Reese replied "Well, I have a few other things on my mind.
[1] Reese served as the president of the Youngstown Lake Front Lodge of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin workers,[1][3][4][5] before he became the first vice president of the newly formed Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) Local 1011 in 1938.
[7] George Kimbley, the first black steel worker to join SWOC in Gary, Indiana recounts how he was recruited:[8] Jesse Reese was a Communist, and he let the world know it.
And lo and behold when I found out, [laughs] I think I wrote the, I was the first steel worker to join the union in Gary, Indiana.