North of the Colour Line
Sleeping Car Porters and the Battle against Jim Crow on Canadian Rails, 1880-1920
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5025697 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sarah-Jane Mathieu (Princeton University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2001 |
| Volume | 47 |
| Pages | 9 |
| Publication date | 2001-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Labour / Le Travail (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0700-3862 • E-ISSN: 1911-4842 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/25149112 |
| OpenAlex | W1631332279 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
This paper analyses the evolution of Jim Crow employment patterns in the Canadian railway industry from the 1880s to World War I. It presents race as acentral organizing principle in employers' decision to hire black railwaymen for their sleeping and dining car departments. Canadian railway managers actively sought out African American, West Indian, and African Canadian labour, believing that they constituted an easily manipulated group of workers. White railroaders fought the introduction of black employees, arguing that they undermined white manhood and railway unionism. Trade union leaders demanded and won a racialized division of the workforce, locking black workers into low-waged service position when they had initially enjoyed a broader range of employment options. In effect, white railway trade unionists and their employers embraced segregation as a rational model for peaceful working conditions. Black railroaders, on the other hand, resisted the encroachment of segregationist policies by forming their own union, the Order of Sleeping Car Porters. They pressured for change by exposing the scope of Jim Crow practices in the railway industry and trade unionism. Resume Cet article analyse l'evolution des modeles d'emploi de Jim Crow dans l'industrie des chemins de fer canadiens des annees 1880 jusqu'a la Premiere Guerie Mondiale. Il presente la race comme un principe fondamental dans la decision des employeurs d'embaucher des travailleurs noirs pour les wagons-lits et les wagons-restaurants. Les chefs des chemins de fer canadiens recherchaient activement les Afro-Americains, les Antillais et les Afro-Canadiens, en pensant qu'ils faisaient partie d'un groupe de travailleurs faciles a manipuler. Les travailleurs blancs se sont battus contre l'embauche des employes noirs, en disant que ces derniers saperaient leur virilite et le syndicalisme aux chemins de fer. Les chefsdes syndicats ont demande et gagne une separation de la main-d'oeuvre selon larace, confinant les travailleurs noirs aux emplois peu remuneres alors qu'ils avaient initialement une gamme de possibilites d'emploi plus variee. En effet, les syndicalistes blancs et les employeurs ont soutenu la segregation comme modele rationnel des conditions de travail pacifiques. Les travailleurs noirs, en revanche, ont resiste aux politiques de segregation en formant leur propre syndicat, l'Ordre des travailleurs de wagons-lits. Ils ont fait des pressions pour obtenir des changements en rendant publiques les pratiques de Jim Crow dans l'industrie des chemins de fer et dans le mouvement syndical
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| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,45 |
| Citation span | 2006 - 2023 (18) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |