Brotherhoods of color : black railroad workers and the struggle for equality by 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:

332 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Harvard University Press, 2002.

Summary:

"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. Arnesen recreates the heroic efforts by black locomotive firemen, brakemen, porters, dining car waiters, and red caps to fight a pervasive system of racism and job discrimination fostered by their employers, white co-workers, and the most powerful unions in the railroad industry." "Decades before the rise of the modern civil rights movements in the mid-1950s, 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, Arneson helps to recast the history of black protest and American labor in the twentieth century."--BOOK JACKET.

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:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-318) and index.

Local Notes:

Pennsylvania Abolition Society Complimentary Collection.

ISBN:

0674008170

9780674008175

0674003195

9780674003194

OCLC:

972850795