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Current Issue: March 30, 2011
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Railroads Essential to Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement was a time when African Americans were tested and tried just because for the color of their skin.

As it is a very important part of history, UTM hosts the Annual Civil Rights Conference were speakers from all around come and talk about its different aspects. One speaker, Dr. Linda Bradford, the project director for the African American Railroad Workers of Fulton Kentucky Oral History Project. Her speech was called Jim Crow Trains, Civil Rights and the Creation of the Black Middle Class.
The speech targeted how railroads were both harmful and beneficial to the African American people during the Civil Rights movement. When the separate but equal doctrine was in effect, nearly everything public was separated into two categories: whites and colored.
This also applied to railways as they were also segregated as buses were. Even if the whites' car was close to empty and the blacks' car was standing room only, they could not sit in with the whites.

It carried over to the dining car as well. Being a server or cook on the railroad was a common job that was mostly filled by African Americans at the time.

Dr. Bradford said that the name of "George" was given automatically to all the black servers on the dining cart by the upper class whites they served and that it was very demeaning to the person being called "George." According to Dr. Bradford, the cooks on a train had to get up and prepare breakfast at 4 a.m. and then work until the end of dinner after all the other people had been served.

The cooks were not allowed to really sleep at all, but instead catch a nap when they could and not get caught because they could still get fired if they were found sleeping on the job.

However, later on the cooks were finally given mattresses or cots. The only problem was that they had to sleep in the "Possum's belly" which was the cook's floor. After all the people were served, they moved the tables and laid out their cots/mattresses on the floor.

Although there were a lot of bad things that affected blacks, there were also a few benefits. For example, different educations were available to the children of the railroad men. And the living conditions for the families of the railroad workers had a better quality of life than other families who weren't affiliated with the railroads.

Another speaker that accompanied Dr. Bradford was Mr. Pete Algee who was a retired railroad engineer.
His inspirational speech told of how he started on the bottom of the chain and worked his way up in the railroad system until he finally found the position he wanted and finally retired.

The speeches given by both Dr. Bradford and Mr. Algee both encouraged thinking about railroads during the Civil Rights Movement.

VIDEO:  http://webcast.utm.edu/UTMms01/Viewer/?peid=1065506715614fa88d3504698892e1c51d