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RECENT PRESS RELEASESJim Crow On Streetcars | Rosa Parks Day |
National Capital Trolley Museum Celebrates |
Special Exhibit – Jim Crow on Streetcars |
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For Immediate Release: The National Capital Trolley Museum celebrates Black History Month with a special exhibit, Jim Crow on Streetcars, telling the stories of both 19th and 20th century efforts to establish racially segregated transit and to resist its establishment. Ken Rucker, Museum Director of Administration, explains, “Most folks do not know about discrimination in the North before the Civil War and assume that Jim Crow Laws only began in the South after the War. Jim Crow on Streetcars begins by exploring antebellum discrimination in New York City, and then focuses on 20th Century segregation in the Nation’s Capital and Birmingham, Alabama. Discriminatory practices were arbitrary--there were no universal rules. In some cities in the South, African Americans rode in the front of the car; in other cities, they rode in the rear section. In Washington, they rode where they pleased unless they were on a car traveling into Virginia. Cars crossing the Potomac would stop upon reaching the Virginia side, and passengers would have to sort themselves by race.” With no practice of on-board segregation within the District, Washington’s street cars provided African Americans some relief from the color line in the City, which imposed separate schools, accommodations, and communities. However, the Capitol Transit Company did practice employment discrimination. Despite World War II worker shortages, Capital Transit did not overcome white transit worker unions' objections to hiring African Americans as streetcar and bus operators until after the D.C. Public Schools followed the Supreme Court order to desegregate. Jim Crow on Streetcars documents and confirms the economic and social absurdities of laws supporting racial prejudice, as well as the struggle to overturn them. The National Capital Trolley Museum is open from Noon- 5:00 p.m. every weekend and selected weekdays during the spring and summer. For further information please visit visit www.dctrolley.org or call 301-384-6088. Media Contact: Erik Ledbetter 301-294-6121 |
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Special Program – Remembering Rosa Parks |
| For Immediate Release: The National Capital Trolley Museum celebrates Black History Month with a special program, Remembering Rosa Parks, on Sunday, February 26th at 1:30 p.m. Ken Rucker, Museum Director of Administration, explains, “Diligent efforts by black and white civic leaders in the late 19th and early 20th centuries kept Jim Crow practices off the streetcars and buses in the Nation’s Capital. However, similar efforts failed to prevent the imposition of segregation on streetcars throughout the former Confederacy. Discriminatory practices were arbitrary--there were no universal rules. In some cities in the South, African Americans rode in the front of the car; in other cities, they rode in the rear section. In Washington, they rode where they pleased unless they were on a car traveling into Virginia. Cars crossing the Potomac would stop upon reaching the Virginia side, and passengers would have to sort themselves by race.” With no practice of on-board segregation within the District, Washington’s street cars provided African Americans some relief from the color line in the City, which imposed separate schools, accommodations, and communities. However, the Trolley Museum recognizes the vital role of public transit companies overall in enforcing segregation, and the correspondingly momentous impact of Rosa Parks’ refusal to move to the rear of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Museum streetcar crews will lead visitors through a simulation of Jim Crow practices aboard a streetcar from the Museum’s collections, and will show a video segment about the Montgomery Bus Boycott which ended one landmark absurdity of racial prejudice, and accelerated the struggle to eliminate all vestiges of Jim Crow. The National Capital Trolley Museum is open from Noon- 5:00 p.m. every weekend and selected weekdays during the spring and summer. For further information please visit visit www.dctrolley.org or call 301-384-6088. Media Contact: Erik Ledbetter 301-294-6121 |
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| February 1, 2012 |
