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In the Trenches of World War I-Era Texas: Letters from Black Railroaders to the United States Railroad Administration
Southwestern Historical Quarterly Pub Date : 2021-01-09 , DOI: 10.1353/swh.2021.0001
Theresa A. Case

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  • In the Trenches of World War I-Era TexasLetters from Black Railroaders to the United States Railroad Administration
  • Theresa A. Case (bio)

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Members of the Colored Trainmen of America, a union based in Houston, Texas; Kingsville, Texas; and DeQuincy, Louisiana. The organization got its start with the letter-writing campaigns of the World War I-era. RG R 0003-004, Colored Trainmen of America Collection, Houston Public Library, African American Library at the Gregory School.

[End Page 270]

In the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, inside fraying, bent folders, each bound by a pushpin, sit hundreds of World War I-era letters from Black railroad workers. The missives sit in the files of a long-forgotten federal agency, the United States Railroad Administration (USRA), which, during the "Great War," managed the nation's railroads. The letters convey the aspirations and frustrations of Black railroaders from across the country. More than 120 of the letters were written by people from the Lone Star State. The main catalyst for this flood of mail was the USRA's call for substantial wage increases, back pay, and equal pay for equal work. As their peers did nationally, the 128 Black petitioners in Texas pressed the government to enforce its own mandates. Many sought an outcome that was extraordinary in its boldness: to realize the democratic and egalitarian promise of the war in one of the most rigidly segregated and discriminatory industries in the nation. The remnants of their labors allow a reconstruction of World War I-era Texas civil rights and labor struggles heretofore hidden from view.

Previous scholars have studied Black railroad workers' communications to the USRA and contributed an understanding of the roots, context, and consequences of their efforts. Historians Joe Trotter and Liesl Miller Orenic contend that the letters' authors sought to "transform policies" of the federal government "into a vehicle for the improvement of their own [End Page 271] position in the railroad industry." Paul Michel Taillon cast the letters as an "empowering" form of "political action" that held up the ideal of equal citizenship and challenged the government to fulfill its true role as an impartial arbiter and guarantor of justice. Other historians, chiefly Eric Arnesen and Joseph Kelly, have drawn on the USRA collection as part of broader regional and national studies. Scholars have yet to piece together a story around the correspondence from World War I-era Texas and determine what they reveal about Black workers in that specific time and place.1

Historians of early twentieth-century Texas Black working-class history have mined a plethora of sources, including oral histories, government and company documents, legal and union records, newspaper reports, and the papers of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).2 The petitions to the USRA open yet another portal into this past. They are unique in that they relate, in immediate, raw form, the desires and strategies of Black working-class actors who lived more than a century ago. Few other direct sources exist on Black railroaders.3 The letters are also notable in that the names of professionals and business and community leaders are largely absent from mention. The railroad porters, brakemen, porter-brakemen, and shop workers who authored or signed these communications seem to have acted and thought independently of the broader community leadership. For the most part, they did not [End Page 272] organize under the mantel of the NAACP, which in 1919 boasted almost eight thousand Texas members.4 Such an example of working-class selforganization goes against the grain of the historiography, which tends to highlight cross-class cooperation or the activism of the Black middle class.5

The letters show that a mass of Black railroaders coordinated along racial lines among fellow local railroad workers or attached themselves to regional or national organizations of this nature. Their very signatures are testimony to the collective nature of their endeavors; numerous letters list multiple claimants or record the name of an individual that the others had chosen to sign on their behalf. While some authors appealed carefully to White paternalism, a...



中文翻译:

在第一次世界大战的战Texas中,得克萨斯州:黑色铁路工人致美国铁路管理局的信

代替摘要,这里是内容的简要摘录:

  • 在第一次世界大战的战Texas中,得克萨斯州黑人铁路公司给美国铁路局的信
  • 特蕾莎·凯斯(生物)

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美国有色培训师协会的成员,该协会设在德克萨斯州休斯敦;德克萨斯州金斯维尔;和路易斯安那州的DeQuincy。该组织开始于第一次世界大战时期的信访活动。RG R 0003-004,美国彩色培训员收藏,休斯顿公共图书馆,格雷戈里学校的非裔美国人图书馆

[结束页270]

n中的Ñrchives在Ç ollege P中,M aryland,内部磨损,弯曲的文件夹,每个文件夹都用图钉装订,上面放着数百个第一次世界大战时期来自黑人铁路工人的信。这些遗体位于一个长期被遗忘的联邦机构美国铁路管理局(USRA)的档案中,该机构在“大战”期间管理着该国的铁路。这些信件传达了来自全国各地的黑人铁路工人的愿望和挫败感。其中超过120封信是由“孤星州”的人写的。这种邮件泛滥的主要催化剂是USRA呼吁大幅提高工资,补交工资和同工同酬。与全国同龄人一样,得克萨斯州的128名黑人请愿者敦促政府执行自己的任务。许多人追求的结果大胆非凡:在美国最严格的隔离和歧视性行业之一中实现战争的民主和平等承诺。他们的残余劳动使得第一次世界大战时期的得克萨斯州公民权利和劳工斗争得以重建。

以前的学者研究了黑人铁路工人与USRA的往来,并加深了对他们努力的根源,背景和后果的理解。历史学家乔·特罗特(Joe Trotter)和里尔·米勒(Liesl Miller Orenic)争辩说,这封信的作者力图“将联邦政府的政策”“转变成改善自身状况的工具” [结束271页]保罗·米歇尔·泰永(Paul Michel Taillon)将这封信表示为“政治行动”的“赋权”形式,这种形式树立了平等公民权的理想,并挑战政府履行其作为公正仲裁员和正义保证者的真正职责。其他历史学家,主要是埃里克·阿内森(Eric Arnesen)和约瑟夫·凯利(Joseph Kelly),已将USRA的收藏作为更广泛的区域和国家研究的一部分,学者们尚未围绕第一次世界大战时期得克萨斯州的信件编撰一个故事,并确定他们对布莱克的启示在那个特定的时间和地点的工作人员。1

二十世纪初得克萨斯州黑人工人阶级历史的历史学家挖掘了许多资料,包括口述历史,政府和公司文件,法律和工会记录,报纸报道以及美国全国有色人种发展协会的论文( NAACP)。2向USRA提交的请愿书为过去打开了另一个门户。它们的独特之处在于,它们以直接原始的方式联系了一个多世纪前生活的黑人工人阶级演员的欲望和策略。Black铁路工人几乎没有其他直接来源。3这些信件也是值得注意的,因为基本上没有提到专业人士以及企业和社区领导人的名字。撰写或签署了这些通讯的铁路搬运工,制动手,搬运工-煞车工和车间工人的举止和思想似乎独立于广大社区的领导。在大多数情况下,他们没有[结束第272页]在NAACP的领导下进行组织,该组织在1919年拥有近8000名得克萨斯州成员。4这种工人阶级自我组织的例子与史学的原理背道而驰,这往往强调跨阶级的合作或黑人中产阶级的行动主义。5

这些信件表明,大量的黑人铁路工人在当地的铁路工人同伴之间按照种族路线进行协调,或者依附于这种性质的地区或国家组织。他们的独特标志证明了他们努力的集体性。许多信件列出了多个索赔人或记录了其他人选择代表他们签名的个人的姓名。虽然有些作者谨慎地呼吁白人家长制,但...

更新日期:2021-03-16
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