1909 Georgia Railroad strike

American labor strike April 2020 April 2020 Georgia, United States Georgia Railroad strike of 1909 Georgia race strike *White firemen from the Georgia Railroad Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen *Georgia Railroad May 17–29, 1909 *Equal pay for African American and white firemen *Resentment from white firemen over the hiring of African Americans The Georgia Railroad strike of 1909, also known as the Georgia race strike, was a labor strike that involved white firemen working for the Georgia Railroad that lasted from May 17 to May 29. White firemen, organized under the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen (B of LF&E), resented the hiring of African American firemen by the railroad and accompanying policies regarding seniority. The labor dispute ended in Federal mediation under the terms of the Erdman Act, with the mediators deciding in favor of the railroad on all major issues. Background In Fall 1902, the Georgia Railroad began hiring African Americans as firemen for some of their longer routes. They were hired at considerably lower wages than white firemen, and their hiring increased during the depression of 1907. By April 1909, African Americans made up about 42% of the total firemen working for the railroad. The average pay for a white firemen was $1.75 per day, while African American firemen were paid $1.25 per day.Matthews 1974 614 Furthermore, the railroad allowed full seniority rights to the African American firemen, but denied them the opportunity to be promoted to the position of railroad engineer.Matthews 1974 615 The effect of this was that many of the African American workers accumulated more seniority than their white firemen counterparts, allowing them the choice of more profitable runs.Matthews 1974 615Moreno 2006 99 By early 1909, tensions began to rise among the white firemen of the Georgia Railroad, many of whom were members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen (B of LF&E), an all-white labor union. In April, Eugene A. Ball, the union's vice president, visited Georgia and urged the railroad to change its policies.Matthews 1974 615 A critical development occurred on April 10, as ten white firemen had been fired by the Atlanta Terminal Company and replaced by African American workers at lower wages. Ball mistakenly believed that the general manager of Georgia Railroad was also a board member of the Atlanta Terminal Company, and as such believed the firings constituted a significant enough event to warrant further action. On May 13 and 14, Ball oversaw near unanimous voting in favor of a labor strike.Matthews 1974 615 Course of the strike On May 17, eighty firemen, all white members of the brotherhood, went on strike against the Georgia Railroad.Matthews 1974 613 As part of the strikers' demands, they called for the ten white workers to be rehired by the Atlanta Terminal Company and for the railroad to cease its replacement of white workers with African Americans.Matthews 1974 616 The Georgia Railroad was open about its policy of hiring African Americans for lower wages and attacked the union for attempting to remove African Americans from employment on railroads.Matthews 1974 616Dittmer 1980 33 Early on, the railroad attempted to attack Ball as an instigating outsider, highlighting the fact that he was Canadian. Ball responded that he was both a Canadian and a white man who stood "for a white man's country".Marshall 1967 59 Attempting to break the strike, the railroad ran freight trains fired entirely by black workers, many of whom faced violence from mobs along the line.Dittmer 1980 34 Shortly after the outbreak of the strike, Ball published an open letter in The Atlanta Constitution attacking Georgia Railroad's policies.Matthews 1974 617 Several days later, on May 19, mobs in Dearing and Thomson, both near Augusta, stopped Georgia Railroad trains and attacked the black firemen on board.Matthews 1974 617 The following days saw mob activity in other places through the state, including in Covington and Lithonia.Matthews 1974 617 Georgia Railroad asked Governor M. Hoke Smith for militia protection, but Smith, who sympathized with the strikers, refused.Dittmer 1980 34 Smith also feared that his political opponent Thomas E. Watson would exploit any perceived intervention on the behalf of African Americans.Moreno 2006 100 With the governor unwilling to help, Georgia Railroad sent telegrams to Federal officials Charles P. Neill and Martin Augustine Knapp asking them to serve as mediators under the terms of the Erdman Act, which had been passed several years earlier as a response to the Pullman Strike, another railroad strike.Matthews 1974 618 However, following the mob activity, on May 22 the governor sent John C. Hart, the Attorney General of Georgia to meet with railroad officials and review the situation. Hart recommended that both sides seek arbitration, though initially there were disagreements between the railroad and union on how this should be done. The Georgia Railroad turned down the offer to have the arbitration be done locally, most likely due to mistrust of Governor Smith, and the union rejected the proposal from Neill and Knapp to have Federal arbitration, calling the dispute "purely local".Matthews 1974 619 Meanwhile, mob activity increased as trains were now being detained in Union Point and Georgia Railroad began to bring in white strikebreakers from outside the state.Matthews 1974 619 On May 23, following attacks on two engineers, the engineers of the Georgia Railroad left their post.Matthews 1974 620 The following day, Neill announced he would be coming to Atlanta to work on a settlement between the two parties, though the union was quick to dismiss this as "outside interference".Matthews 1974 620 According to The New York Times, which had been covering the incident, President William Howard Taft was considering the use of Federal troops to address the situation, but ultimately decided against that, as he felt it would hurt the Republican Party's image in the Southern United States.Matthews 1974 621 On May 27, Ball, fearful of further Federal involvement in the strike, allowed for two mail trains to run between Augusta and Atlanta daily, which started the following day. That same day, Knapp joined Neill in Atlanta.Matthews 1974 622 On May 29, the strike was called off as the two parties entered into discussions.Matthews 1974 621 Mediation Following Knapp's arrival, the railroad and union came to an agreement that the ten white firemen whose firings had triggered the strike would be rehired, but the railroad rejected the union's proposal to fire all African American firemen.Marshall 1967 59Matthews 1974 622 Additionally, the railroad and the brotherhood agreed to allow a team of three mediators to resolve the remaining issues under the terms of the Erdman Act.Moreno 2006 100Matthews 1974 622–623 The three men selected as arbitrators were Thomas W. Hardwick (the union's pick), Hilary A. Herbert (the railroad's pick), and University of Georgia chancellor David Crenshaw Barrow Jr. (Hardwick and Herbert's pick).Matthews 1974 623–624 On June 21, the three mediators began to hear testimony.Matthews 1974 624 On June 26, the arbitrators released their decision, wherein they decided against the union on every major point. However, the arbitrators did rule that the railroad would be required to pay African American and white firemen the same wage. Hardwick had been a dissenting vote on several of the issues, and he opposed allowing the railroad to employ African Americans, but supported the requirement for equal pay.Moreno 2006 100Matthews 1974 625 The decision, while unpopular among Ball and other union officials, was not appealed.Matthews 1974 625 Aftermath and legacy In an article published concurrently to the strike, African American newspaper the Atlanta Independent, noted that the strike was "nothing less than a cowardly subterfuge ... for the purpose of oppressing black working men because they are black."Reich 2013 179 Furthermore, Benjamin Davis, editor of the Independent and father of civil rights activist Benjamin J. Davis Jr., called the strike an act of "coercion and violence" against African American workers.Matthews 1974 628 American historian Darlene Clark Hine said the strike was the most widely covered labor and race-related incident prior to the East St. Louis riots of 1917.Jenkins Hine 2001 160 The arbitration's decisions were popularly received by many in the African American community, especially the ruling of equal pay for both whites and African Americans. While there were initially concerns that this ruling would result in whites being selected over African Americans, railroads retained African American firemen at pre-strike levels.Moreno 2006 100Matthews 1974 628 Many saw the decision as a vindication of Booker T. Washington's ideas of racial progress through economic development. Washington personally thanked Herbert for the decision, which he said would have a far-reaching positive impact on the African American community.Matthews 1974 628 However, Hubert Harrison would cite the strike in his arguments against Booker T. Washington. According to Harvey, the strike highlighted the issue of industrial training for African Americans in the absence of political rights, as, according to Harrison, "any training which makes black men more efficient will bring them into keener competition with white men. ... Their jobs will be taken away."Perry 2009 129 References Bibliography Dittmer John https://books.google.com/books?id=mW4gKvP1oZkC&q=Georgia+Railroad+strike&pg=PA33 Black Georgia in the Progressive Era, 1900-1920 University of Illinois Press 1980 978-0-252-00813-9 Illini books en Google Books https://books.google.com/books?id=NM67TaIvgjUC&q=Georgia+race+strike&pg=PA173 A Question of Manhood: The 19th Century: From Emancipation to Jim Crow Indiana University Press 2001 978-0-253-21460-7 Jenkins Earnestine 2 en Hine Darlene Clark Google Books Marshall F. Ray https://books.google.com/books?id=gYZEAmC0y9oC&q=Georgia+Railroad+strike&pg=PA59 Labor in the South Harvard University Press 1967 978-0-674-50700-5 en Google Books Matthews John Michael November 1974 The Georgia "Race Strike" of 1909 The Journal of Southern History Southern Historical Association 40 4 613–630 10.2307/2206357 2206357 0022-4642 Moreno Paul D. https://books.google.com/books?id=URDl2NuzZzAC&q=Georgia+Railroad+strike&pg=PA99 Black Americans and Organized Labor: A New History Louisiana State University Press 2006 978-0-8071-3425-2 en Google Books Perry Jeffrey B. https://books.google.com/books?id=rM7ZD2_B46EC&q=Georgia+Railroad+strike&pg=PA458 Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918 Columbia University Press 2009 978-0-231-51122-3 en Google Books Reich Steven A. https://books.google.com/books?id=sZTiAAAAQBAJ&q=Georgia+Railroad+strike&pg=PA178 A Working People: A History of African American Workers Since Emancipation Rowman & Littlefield 2013 978-1-4422-0333-4 en Google Books Category:1909 in Georgia (U.S. state) Category:1909 in rail transport Category:Labor disputes in Georgia (U.S. state) Category:1900s strikes in the United States Category:Racially motivated violence against African Americans in Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Rail transportation labor disputes in the United States