Jesse Reese

Jesse Reese, was a black communist and militant trade unionist in the United States.

Early life and career After being forced to work in a chain gang, Reese fled from Mississippi to Gary, Indiana in the 1920s. He likely joined the Communist Party shortly after arriving. He lived with Walter Mackerl during the Great Depression. The two of them knew each other from the Universal Negro Improvement Association and Reese was described as "a diehard" by Mackerl.

He got a job at Youngstown Sheet and Tube, which was one of the "little steel" companies, in Indiana Harbor in 1929. before he became the first vice president of the newly formed Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) Local 1011 in 1938.

In the 1930s Reese was named as one of the "six most active" union organizers for the Steel Workers Organizing Committee. In the summer of 1936, SWOC and National Negro Congress held meetings 3 days a week, twice a day, corresponding with the shifts of the workers.