Good evening, good evening, and welcome you can go ahead and clap, thats okay. [applause] welcome to the center for research and black culture where were dedicate today the collection, preservation and interpretation of global black experiences. Im novella ford, for public exhibitions. Thank you for joining us for the conversation with eric k. Washington, and author of the life of James H Williams and the red caps. This program is hosted in conjunction with ballot for harlem. If you havent had a chance to look at the exhibition, it will be up until the end of december, but there are all things inside the exhibition i think youll hear about tonight and also might feed your own historical knowledge about harlem. A ballot for harlem exams strands of black place making in the 20th century, offering to community, innovation, education, political engagement, cultural affirmation, Global Perspectives and creativity. And the exhibition i was mentioning earlier, highlights include the brotherhood of sleeping car porters, the first union for black workers, the Pullman Porters and selections from ruby d and ozzie daves collection which we acquires. Items from ann petrys archives and so much more. We have two more ballot for harlem conversations coming up save the date. On november 13th we will be having a conversation about sculptor augusta savage, and that event is on november 13th at 6 30. The other event is taking place in december and its a conversation about making community. And were talking about barber shops, how they are a convening force in the black community and were hosting that program in partnership with bands presentation of barbershop chronicles by a british play write, a story about fatherson relationships set to a beat and score. So much is happening here at the Schomburg Center. And pick this up, its got a beautiful picture of Toni Morrison on the cover and register all all of our events. And silence your cell phones and let me remind you we will have a book signing following the conversation. Eric k. Washington is a new york city based independent historian and author, the owner of tagging the past, which he ever endeavors to connect to unsung areas of upper manhattan and exhibitions, at the Civil Rights Museum and city college. His interpretive signage which won the Municipal Arts Society master arts award celebrates the waterfront of manhattanville, and erics current book published by a division of ww norton that grew out of columbia universitys Scholarship Program and levi center for biography and a residency at msah door mar house. The new book boss of the grits, lives of James H Williams and red caps of Grand Central terminal. A once a harlem based black work force at americas most august railroad station whose individuals often infused the life blood of the new Negro Movement and harlem renaissance of the 1920s. Well hear first from eric and then he and i will sit down and have a conversation. Please welcome eric k. Washington to the podium. [applause]. Thank you, thank you and thank you, Schomburg Center for a search in black culture for being the stewards of such an incredible collection that was involu involume invaluable to my research on this book. Im going to plunge in and then well talk. So on the evening of september 14th, 1909, James H Williams summoned a throng of red cap to Grand Central to west 53rd street. Despite the growing exodus to harlem, this street in todays Hells Kitchen was still a hub of black life. Williams had only recently been promoted to supervise these men as a chief attendant. This category name attendant was rarely used by travelers and it was by their conspicuous head gear called red caps. This seemed more formal. Williams summoned this em to a church for the Beneficial Association of Grand Central terminal. At Grand Central a number of occupational and emotional distresses gathered the red caps fully around Railroad Service while construction crews built up the terminal complex around the old station. A fatal station accident claimed one of williams men the month before. As officers of the new Mutual Aid Society the man duly elected chief wanes as president and his assistant chief samuel babel then studying for the occupation of thrust them into history as sergeant at arms. This 1990 incident paints a telling picture of the nascent paternal and grassrootsbased labor force that james h h. Williams built up for Grand Central station for was distinct, the brotherhood of sleeping car porters which was founded in 1925 which in turn would inspire the red caps own similar National Union movement in 1937. In the decades long span of williams tenure we glimpse the breadth of the red caps impact on both Grand Central and greater harlem. The best way to introduce williams is to start by reading something from the introduction. Nuke cities Grand Central terminal is a rightly celebrated Tour De Force the captivate the traveling public more than a century. Open on february 2, 1913, the Worlds Largest railroad station was built by the american firms lead in stem, and ward and whitmore. Showcase a host of of such artistic house as whose monumental sculpture of hercules, mercury and minerva above a tiffany clock crowns the buildings entry. And whose painted ceiling transports a mind wandering traveler to the blue heavens. Many regarded it as a fighter example of civic planning in new york. At once at architectural confection and a masterwork of innovative design and engineering. Yet the sublimest of Grand Central terminal tennessee pink marble concourses, its cascading ramps and stairs and opulent shouters, belies its once essential operating model, the servitude of African American workers. The servitude in this case was rooted in the american tradition of racial exploitation. Northerners might comfortably regarded their territory as a historically enlightened refuge from the harsh segregation practices of the south, or of aa bygone era. However, 20thcentury newark city at apple evidence of its own jim crow policies, notably at Grand Central. The stations tightly run system deployed a a singular core a bk man in red caps as baggage porters. Who at times numbered in the summer hundreds. The nature of the porters works observed in the new yorker tends to put them in the class with beasts of burden. Indeed, throughout the muslim concourses a porters often backbreaking intervening labor was integral both to the stations functional efficiency and to its glamorous ambience. It was perhaps inevitable that Grand Central red caps porters system became the model for numerous railroad stations across the nation. Made categorically identifiable both by their apparel and by their complexion, the black workforce at Grand Central embodied americas colorblind, the laws, bylaws, amendments, and social attitudes that closed doors to blacks. In the United States the columbine was a deepseated cultural contrivance that had festered for generations. It was a panoply of contradictions. At times one fill its prohibitions only intuitively, yet they were as palpable as a taut rope. It could be woven into the collective subconscious by social mores or by deliberate legislative acts. But blacks also found ways to circumvent and mitigate impasses created when whites directed to come along. They bent and reconfigured it into opportunities, positions of leverage. Such was the case at Grand Central whether colorblind afford a black black workers the means, preferably speaking, to make away out of no way proverbially speaking. Read capping worse force is one most iconic Service Opportunities at the last century. It originated at the Grand Central depot in 1895 with a dozen white step but had become exclusively black by making or five. A source of pride, the job was coveted by an almost invariably associate with african men. Where as educated white shove the working to low in steps, educated blacks recommend as rare propitious employment option and an air of rigid racial barriers. At Grand CentralAfrican AmericanCollege Students read capping as a means to pay their way through school. Man to create this opportunity for securing a foothold for professional and social advancement was james h. Williams a single individual whose history Grand Central from the steeped in urban legend. Board formally enslaved African American parents in 1870, williams broke the color line of Grand Central white redcap attendance at 1903. Upon his sign the form of public reminder that attendance are not porters to carry baggage or rather were on to assist station passengers became taken on a new definition. Starting in 1909 will use serve as a chief attended or cheap order or chief redcap of Grand Central terminal, its first and most notable africanamerican officer, and would make it the position until his death in 1948. In this capacity he embodied a unique juncture between lack and white america. His influential 45 year tenure with the munch of the railroad station that only a gateway to americas greatest city but, just as much, i gateway to the nations greatest africanamerican neighborhood, harlem. For nearly half a century chief william supervise the staff of bent over relegated by race to the lotus status of the of thes workforce though they were integral to the rewards system. Like the real roaming can, the sleeping car or Pullman Porters were also africanamerican, the station and red caps are crucial to the swiss watch precision of the terminal and woven into the beguiling experience of early 20thcentury river travel. Williams life coincided with key periods in the evolving social and cultural world of African Americans living in the everchanging metropolis of new york city. His experiences off a window postcivil war america and the heady optimism of the reconstruction era, we follow williams as a race that they use active if unassuming agent of the 20th century ideological cause of racial uplift which strove to quell white prejudice to blacks of the improvement in education, business, labor, citrus and the arts that in the making \20{l1}s{l0}\20{l1}s{l} would fuel the new Negro Movement and the harlem renaissance. We follow him through two world wars. It was williams who ingeniously transformed an upwardly self basin tap into the coveted employment opportunity. As a nuke Herald Tribune would observe, williams chiefdom ushered scores a promising but fiscally strapped young black college in on their way to a mortarboard by working under a redcap as luggage porters. Many were greek lettered men, a prime example of the countless social networks that plaques form for themselves when theyrr categorically barred as persona non grata from white fraternities and other private white institutions. The academic credentials notwithstanding, these black greeks as was their unschooled brothers of the race worked as an salaried laborers. They were ubiquitous throughout the terminals opulent concourses, keeping trunks and the leases, type with satchels and fats and toting the golf clubs and hat boxes a bustling travelers whom they depended upon for tips. While this story is about race and labor, it is also our woman about crystal into scum resourcefulness of b. Over the course of his life, American World under some of the most seismic shifts in its history. As the new york central relatively ushered statesman, movie stars, society early, sports heroes, high clergy and other notables to win from trains with marginal visibility. But he stood at conspicuous among africanamericans as the chief, who created a platform to employ black men, to sustain black students and to showcase the race in the most admirable light. In this capacity as the boss of the grips, grips being a term applied to both baggage handlers, he was part of the Central Nervous system of harlem renaissance, the storied era. Theres also a renaissance of vibrant business and industry as ancillary race enterprises as well as in spirited African American labor and civic movements in which chief williams was noted. While harlem mikes admired him as a forthright advocate and powerbroker for their community, williams generally touched others. The day after he died, the journalist earl brett had to go to chicago so headed down to Grand Central for a ticket. Boarding that cracked me up to chicago train which took central advertise as the most famous train in the world, anticipated the site of chief williams at the gate. On the main concourse brown met some old conference. He knew from when he had redcap from a somewhat from school. The vast woodruff passengers were not going to chicago didnt know about williams death and did not miss a step. But brown and maybe some of the caps saw couple of strangers here two old white passengers, friends of the chief, said the read about his death in the morning paper. They were crying. So i wondered who was this black man whose passing elicited of y grief among both friends and strangers . Facing the life of james h was in has been a dog of a faceting task of the intrusive nature of his job rendered him nearly ephemeral but not invisible. Though he was not a man of letters, english and observations of others, and in the chronicles of his times, he takes shapes, fleshes out in briefs. [applause] thank you. So that was just the introduction, you all ready know what you have to do at the end of this program. Two points. One, ill ill be calling chief williams chief williams both as that was a title he carried and also i wanted to take a moment to give a special shout out and takes to Margaret Edwards who is the great, great granddaughter of chief williams who is here today. So [applause] thank you for joining us so very much. So part of your bio as was what i found in the book is that you have an amazing job of illuminating existence of everyday people, and the impact of the work on society. You say in the intro that its a document faceting task. Howd you on earth and develop this rich composition of the manlike chief williams in the absence of a formal archive . In many ways. Sometimes the easy part is finding the names and funny then repeated in newspaper articles or citations, in somebody elses document or whatever. Sometimes its just a name on the list of people who attended a a gathering, a party or a meeting, and im with is people like i might just like them and say i wonder who that person was . And see if they are somebody or anybody. More often than not when youre searching for someone or something you dont miss it but which are looking for ride with what you find Something Else that catches your attention. In that way i think there are different strategies and sort of nonstrategies for digging up and find the people who are just kind of everyday people. The black press was is goodt that sort of thing. They were constantly listing peoples names, telling stories that maybe you should know. Yeah, the black press, i mean, one of the things that was great was having access to databases and looking through main street press also but the black press, particularly when it was a gathering or an event. There seem to be this, where everybody is listed who didnt necessarily these of the people who were there. At first you might feel like why are we mentioning them . But then its like maybe the adage is no else mentioned them, so i was really great because i can go back to stories ive read over again, particularly it was a huge gathering and listed everybody and go back and see now that i become fluent with some some of the names, like i would interrupt that meeting, that dinner . So that was very, very useful just having a lot of these names kind of go for. Some i had to find other ways of inet who those people were to look interesting. Chief williams parents were part of the wave of migration to new york during reconstruction. The population in new york swelled to over 19,000 by 1880. Loss of the grips is not only a part of it i think of chief williams also offers a mask of new york in the late 18,191st. Talk about a black mayors that to help develop chief williams. His parents, there were both enslaved in virginia, the same county. I have come across any evidence they knew one another there. It seems they probably met in new york. The freedmans bank records which are very useful, there were two, i use one in the book, one from 1872 where hes in virginia, and it was said he was a runaway from slavery. After the war he had family and went back to virginia and use hotel waiter in oh, gosh, norwalk virginia . Nor folk connecticut or the other way around . [inaudible] so he was in virginia. Then the next year hes in new york working at this posh hotel in new york but hes living in a very nonposh address, one of the many little africas and whats today Greenwich Village. It was Greenwich Village and then also but it is one of areas of the village