Sojourner Truth Organization was a new communist organization, which came into existence in the winter of 1969-70. Throughout its fifteen-year existence (1969–1985), it existed mainly in the Midwest and oriented towards organization in the workplace. It was named after the nineteenth century female African American activist, Sojourner Truth. It distinguished itself from other New Left groups in its critical approach to the role of race in the formation of the American working class. This perspective is perhaps best expressed in Noel Ignatiev's Preface to Workplace Papers, a 1980 publication of the STO: