Jim Crow laws & railroads

[TomDiehl]

QUOTE: Originally posted by easter

Somehow the words,"One nation, under God ,indivisible ,with liberty and justice for all," didn't apply here.Easter.

And these cars were just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

[Anonymous]

Somehow the words,"One nation, under God ,indivisible ,with liberty and justice for all," didn't apply here.Easter.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

The Georgia Railroad used a handful of Jim Crow combines with the baggage section in the middle on its branchline mixed trains well into the 1960's, although by that time passengers of either race rarely showed up to ride those trains.

There were also some GE-designed pre-WW1 motor cars for Southern railroads with a center and rear entrance to the passenger section.

Wayner's "Car Names, Numbers and Consists" shows partitioned coaches as part of the equipment assigned to the Southerner when it started as a coach streamliner.

[daveklepper]

The Richmond Fredericksburg and Patomic did continue the use of wood-bodied cars through WWII. But not only for blacks. I rode in one once.

[wjstix]

Ironically as that article pointed out, many of the ancient (19th century) wood passenger cars we have preserved today were because those cars were used into the 50's and 60's as "Jim Crow" cars in the south.

[daveklepper]

Going south from Penn Station during WWII, all the streamliners of the Southern, ACL, and SAL, and through coaches on the Havana Special, were segregated, with separate coaches for black passengers. Segregation was not practiced in room sleeping cars, because the use of separate room was considered enough segregation. There may have been segregated section sleepers, but I did not experience them. Generally, if black people traveled Pullman, they bought room space . I was told it was difficult for them to buy section space (upper and lower berths). Most dining cars on these trains had a glass dividing wall with a small seating area used by black passengers (2 or 4 tables seating 8 or 16), but the steward had some flexibility on handling the situation. It was rare to see a black in the lounge cars except for the attendent.

I imagine the same situatioh existed on trains running south from Chicago, St. Louis, and KC.

The same comfort standards applied in the coaches for black people as whites on these name trains.

[TomDiehl]

A car that was up at Steamtown a few years ago for repairs of hurricane damage, that belongs to the Gold Coast Railroad Museum in Florida fits this question. Check out this link for a detailed background:

http://www.goldcoast-railroad.org/jimcrow.htm

[jimrice4449]

Many of the southern RRs solved the problem by having compartment coaches w/ a wall seperating the W&B sections. Some went so far as to have a vestibule at both ends of the car.

[agentatascadero]

GP9, In those days, refreshingly, money was not everything, go figure. Prejudice was infinitely more important. I don't know how costly it was as the blacks got all the junk, I was there, it was appaling, especially for a kid not from the south. And there is, in the past few years, a great Jim Crow article in TRAINS, a great but depressing read.

[GP-9_Man11786]

My understanding is that they did. Either Trains or Classic trains did whole feature on the subject some time ago. Some railroads were segregated all the time others were only when passing through segregated states. One would think the added maintaincne cost of having additional seperate but not so equal cars would have caused railroads to abandon the practice ASAP.

[Anonymous]

Did the national r.r system have segregated passenger cars when the Jim Crow laws were in effect in the south??? If an african american boarded a train in New York to go to Atlanta Ga,would he have to change his seat south of the mason dixon line. thanks Easter. ??????????