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Cover image of Railroads in the African American Experience
Cover image of Railroads in the African American Experience
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Railroads in the African American Experience

A Photographic Journey

Theodore Kornweibel Jr.

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Winner, 2011 George W. and Constance M. Hilton Book Award, Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, Inc.

2010 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine

Honorable mention, Large Nonproft Publishers Illustrated Text, 2010 Washington Book Publishers Show
2011 George M. and Constance W. Hilton book award.Railroad History

This captivating book takes readers on an illustrated tour of the black railroad experience from slavery to Amtrak. With almost 200 images—many never before published—Theodore Kornweibel, Jr., examines the significant contributions of African Americans to the building, maintenance...

Winner, 2011 George W. and Constance M. Hilton Book Award, Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, Inc.

2010 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine

Honorable mention, Large Nonproft Publishers Illustrated Text, 2010 Washington Book Publishers Show
2011 George M. and Constance W. Hilton book award.Railroad History

This captivating book takes readers on an illustrated tour of the black railroad experience from slavery to Amtrak. With almost 200 images—many never before published—Theodore Kornweibel, Jr., examines the significant contributions of African Americans to the building, maintenance, operation, and profitability of the American railway system.

The history of American railroads, Kornweibel makes clear, cannot be separated from African American history. For over a century, railroading provided the most important industrial occupation for blacks. Brakemen, firemen, porters, chefs, mechanics, laborers—African American men and women have been essential to the daily operation and success of American railroads. The connections between railroads and African Americans extend well beyond employment. Civil rights protests beginning in the late 19th century challenged railroad segregation and job discrimination; the major waves of black migration to the North depended almost entirely on railroads; and railroad themes and imagery penetrated deep into black art, literature, drama, folklore, and music.

Kornweibel’s visual presentation of this rich history brings to life the hundreds of thousands of blacks who toiled for decades on America’s great rail systems. Each chapter of text focuses on a different occupation or railroading experience, some peculiar to blacks. Together, the evocative images and the complementary essays supply a comprehensive and powerful survey of the social, cultural, political, and economic influence of African Americans on railroads and of railroads on the black community.

Few today recall the importance of blacks to the American railroad industry, even though most black families have railroading ancestors. These stories of hardship and heroism, exploitation and endurance, anger and artistry illuminate a rich heritage and fascinating chapter in American history.

Reviews

Reviews

A major new work..., Railroads in the African American Experience: A Photographic Journey, is about the entire African-American railroading experience—not just the porters, but the relatively unknown and unsung, too... destined to become a standard reference for years to come.

Railroads in the African American Experience is worth a trip to your local independent book store... This inspirational masterpiece is about survival, overcoming adversity, and the triumph of the human spirit.

A. Philip Randolph and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters may not get the same play as, say, Rosa Parks, but they were no less important in the Civil Rights struggle. This handsome volume implicitly makes that point... Kornweibel writes with the meticulous sweep of a historian, and hundreds of amazing photographs and related ephemera help tell the story.

Kornweibel’s prose and pictures bring to life the generations of southern blacks who built the railroads of the South—and sometimes pulled themselves out of poverty.

Theodore Kornweibel, Jr. covers so much ground in Railroads in the African American Experience: A Photographic Journey that it is virtually impossible to touch upon it all here. And that just might be the point. At the end of the day this is a book that is an extremely important addition to the literature on both the history of African-Americans in this country and to the history of American railroads as well... meticulously researched and quite well written.

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About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Backordered
Trim Size
8.5
x
10
Pages
568
ISBN
9780801891625
Illustration Description
18 color illus., 181 halftones
Author Bio
Theodore Kornweibel, Jr.
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Theodore Kornweibel, Jr.

Theodore Kornweibel, Jr., is a professor emeritus in African American history at San Diego State University and author of Investigate Everything: Federal Efforts to Compel Black Loyalty during World War I; Seeing Red: Federal Campaigns against Black Militancy, 1919–1925; and No Crystal Stair: Black Life and the Messenger, 1917–1928.