Brotherhoods of color : black railroad workers and the struggle for equality / Eric Arnesen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Arnesen, Eric.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Railroads--United States--Employees--History.

Railroads.

African Americans--Employment--History.

African Americans.

Discrimination in employment--United States--History.

Discrimination in employment.

Race discrimination--United States--History.

Race discrimination.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (338p. ) ill.

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Black railroad workers and the struggle for equality

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2002, c2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Presenting the story of African Americans on the railroad during the 20th century, this text analyses the struggle against racism and job discrimination fought by the black railroaders, showing how the men forged their own brand of civil rights activism.

From the time the first tracks were laid in the early nineteenth century, the railroad has occupied a crucial place in America's historical imagination. Now, for the first time, Eric Arnesen gives us an untold piece of that vital American institution-the story of African Americans on the railroad. African Americans have been a part of the railroad from its inception, but today they are largely remembered as Pullman porters and track layers. The real history is far richer, a tale of endless struggle, perseverance, and partial victory. In a sweeping narrative, Arnesen re-creates the heroic efforts by black locomotive firemen, brakemen, porters, dining car waiters, and redcaps to fight a pervasive system of racism and job discrimination fostered by their employers, white co-workers, and the unions that legally represented them even while barring them from membership. Decades before the rise of the modern civil rights movement in the mid-1950's, black railroaders forged their own brand of civil rights activism, organizing their own associations, challenging white trade unions, and pursuing legal redress through state and federal courts. In recapturing black railroaders' voices, aspirations, and challenges, Arnesen helps to recast the history of black protest and American labor in the twentieth century.

Contents:

Race in the first century of American railroading

Promise and failure in the World War I era

The Black wedge of civil rights unionism

Independent Black unionism in depression and war

The rise of the red caps

The politics of fair employment

The politics of fair representation

Black railroaders in the modern era.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780674020283

0674020286

OCLC:

923112046