{"product_id":"brotherhoods-of-color-black-railroad-workers-and-the-struggle-for-equality-9780674008175","title":"Brotherhoods of Color: Black Railroad Workers and the Struggle for Equality","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom the time the first tracks were laid in the early nineteenth century  the railroad has occupied a crucial place in Americas historical imagination. Now  for the first time  Eric Arnesen gives us an untold piece of that vital American institutionthe story of African Americans on the railroad.  African Americans have been a part of the railroad from its inception  but today they are largely remembered as Pullman porters and track layers. The real history is far richer  a tale of endless struggle  perseverance  and partial victory. In a sweeping narrative  Arnesen re-creates the heroic efforts by black locomotive firemen  brakemen  porters  dining car waiters  and redcaps to fight a pervasive system of racism and job discrimination fostered by their employers  white co-workers  and the unions that legally represented them even while barring them from membership.  Decades before the rise of the modern civil rights movement in the mid-1950s  black railroaders forged their own brand of civil rights activism  organizing their own associations  challenging white trade unions  and pursuing legal redress through state and federal courts. In recapturing black railroaders voices  aspirations  and challenges  Arnesen helps to recast the history of black protest and American labor in the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45651654508597,"sku":"ByrdShop_0674008170","price":37.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780674008175.jpg?v=1781837069","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/brotherhoods-of-color-black-railroad-workers-and-the-struggle-for-equality-9780674008175","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}