South-bashing

[BumRushDaShow]

67. "But it didn't take the National Guard to enforce the take down."

Unfortunately it did here in Philly. In 1944.



My mother was 14 and was starting high school at the time and used to talk about it - the troops on the trolley. The transit company (PTC) went on a wildcat strike because... OH THE HORROR...they were told to hire black bus and trolley drivers.



And so since Philly was a major war-machine entity (with the Naval Shipyard and a giant Quartermaster shop - i.e., the Defense Personnel Supply Center), Roosevelt had the army running the transit.

<...>

The white trolley drivers decided to strike when the PTC promoted eight African American employees to driving positions, to start on Tuesday, August 1st. A committee headed by the former president of the PRTEU Union, Frank Carney, trolley operator James Dixon, bus driver Frank Thompson, and El operator James McMenamin convinced the trolley drivers to participate in a work stoppage and that morning a large contingent of white PTC workers called out sick.

Philadelphia was not alone in white resistance to fair employment practices in the 1940s. Racist attitudes toward transit integration led to similar “hate strikes” in Mobile and Detroit, and transit systems from Boston to Portland had similar policies of racial discrimination.

President Roosevelt accused the striking white workers of violating the Smith-Connally Act (an act he had opposed), which made it illegal for workers involved in the war effort to strike, however since the PRTEU was no longer the official representative of the PTC workers, the committee representing the workers claimed they were not violating the law.

On the third day of the strike, Roosevelt authorized the Army to take over the transit system, and Major General Phillip Hayes threatened to conscript any workers who remained on strike. Despite this, over 6,000 of the white PTC workers voted to continue the strike. On August 5th, the President upped the ante and ordered the military to break the strike by force. Five thousand troops were ordered into the city, setting up camp in Fairmount Park. The same day, the leaders of the strike committee were arrested and charged with violating the Smith-Connally Act. After spending a night in jail, McMenamin told the workers to return to work and leave the matter to the courts. He and the other committee leaders were summarily fired when they tried to return to work themselves. The military intervention ended the strike before a week passed, and by September all 8 of the African American workers had begun their new jobs as trolley drivers. By the end of 1945, nearly 1,000 African Americans were employed as drivers with the PTC.

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http://hiddencityphila.org/2014/08/an-anniversary-to-forget-august-1-1944/

This is just sad but we are just barely above the Mason-Dixon line.