君 / You

Some of the outstanding
citizens in Memphis
was the pullman
porters. Back
in ‘43, one outstanding
undertaker in Memphis had
an accident with an old
white guy. The white guy ran
into him in his Cadillac and the cops
started whipping this man, saying, "Boy,
what are you doing
running into this man’s car?"
And the white guy said, “It
was my fault," but the cops
just kept beating him. So I said
an outstanding citizen like that
in Memphis, what is there
for me?  From what I'd seen
and heard from my grandmother
which raised me--incidentally
she was eight
when the Civil War started—I had
a very good moral background.
She taught me
don't get out there and antagonize
white people. You got
that fear into you, you travel.

Because
of the war.
It was
either that
or get
drafted,
you know?
And back
in the Second
World War
while all
these husbands
were drafted,
husky, healthy
Black guys
were being
rejected.
A lot of
intelligent, decent
Black guys.
And when they
came home
every white wife
had a Black
boyfriend. Boy,
did they learn
their lesson.
So when
Vietnam come,
they reversed
all that.
It was Vietnam
or the railroad. Boy,
did we learn
that lesson.

And then of course, you handle
everybody’s linen without
gloves at all, you strip the beds,
you put the dirty linen
in the bin. In the washroom
you handle the dirty towels
by hand, you mop the floor and mop
the smoking room and if
you have any sickness on the train
you clean it up, you use
disinfectant, you debug everything
once a month, you get
to travel, you get some tips.
You always get good fresh
money but somehow
you always leave broke

I worked the bar, selling
liquor and sandwiches and one
day I had trouble with three
white women, they
were pretty high when they
came on. And one asked me
if they could get any liquor, so I
gave them what they wanted
but they started
getting loud and I told them,
You wait until that liquor
dies down if you want more but
she didn't like it. She called me
sunshine: Old Sunshine N----.
Some of them
get loud and nasty. I guess
when you work with them
they are nice sometimes,
then sometimes
they need to let you know
that they are white

Now I’m not telling you
      all of you
feel the same
      way: 90 percent
of you do but there is ten percent
      I know is listening
to my story and as long as I
      respect you
you respect me, too,
      right?
Ten percent. The other 90
      of you ain’t
got nothing
      but leather
for me, boy, I know,
      I'm not lying

And George, would you
       fetch me a drink or get
the paper, George, would you
       have the waiter
see me, where
       is my connection to
the Parker House, what street
       is South
Station on, are taxis hard
       to find, what time
is Chicago, George, please don’t forget
       to pick my package up,
George is the name of the man
       who made the Pullman
car, not the name
       I kept inside
my pocket to show them
       I am Albert
my last day on the job

Sure, we found our own
       people riding the train
but most time they
       were just stuffed shirts,
you know? They didn't mix
       too well with others, would sit
one place and think
       you should worship 'em.
Which is why I loved
       that man, first time
we ever met. We called him Malcolm
       X, you know
I lost all his letters

We should stick together,
they said, because
when you don't have a union,
they treat the porters
any kind of way. And a lot of guys
didn't join until it got to be
a real closed shop. But then we got
stronger, better. And of course
if you got into a hot one
with the conductor, if he
deadhead you
for nothing, short you, make you pay
75 cents a night
up at Harlem just to sleep
the Union helps you out. And we
was recognized as real
railroad men. It was beautiful.
That's how we fitted in. Randolph’s
Union let us all be men

You asked what I thought
        about the unions. Well,
this man, he wanted me
        one time to wait on him
upstairs. Of course, he wanted
        to make a date
with me. And
        I told him, which I told a lie, I says,
You bring your wife around,
        I'll bring my husband, but
at that time, I had no husband.
        These things happened
all the time. It wasn’t really
        a problem as I never was
a lady’s lady. But mister, the unions
        never really wanted me

I saw Greta Garbo in my car
 

I saw soldiers delousing Germans
 

I saw that black-haired woman down in Washington, she married the guy
who gave the throne up
 

I was on the dining car when Nixon and Eisenhower was running for president
 

I shook Ella Fitzgerald’s hand
 

I saw Bing Crosby
Doris Day
Betty Grable
Tom Mix
 

I remember Marilyn Monroe on my train and oh my gosh
 

Roy Rogers
Humphry Bogart
Gloria Swanson
 

Only Bing Crosby tipped good

So I say to them, I'm a railroad
man, why can't I stay
down at this ten million
dollar YMCA they built
on 44th Street? Well, they said,
We ain't never had men like you
up here. But I
don't give a damn, this
is a YMCA put up
just for railroad people. I'm
as good as an engineer, I'm
as good as a brakeman, I'm
as good as a conductor,
I'm as good as the president even
of the railroad. So I picked up
the fight, and I won that fight
hands downs. Oh, I had to get
real radical. And you know
from that night on I broke in there,
Black railroad workers
stay with comfort. They
have a library, pool hall, game
room, they have a cafeteria,
when you open the door, that bed
is spotless. I broke the same thing down
in New Haven. It wasn't tough
because I’d cracked
New York. That’s why my wife
tells me, Chico,
if you had stayed on the railroad
they would have killed you

I didn't tell you
      about our youngest
son, he is a handicap
      child. Thirty-one
and he ain't never called me
      daddy yet. But I love
that boy like crazy, boy,
      I'm telling you
I'm crazy about that boy.
      We moved him out
from Brockton in
      September.
You can see the blood
      on this fist, you
can't see blood, but there is blood
      upon this fist.
I had to fight
      the Ku Klux Klan all
over this town. All
      for the privilege
of paying one-
      hundred and fifty-
four thousand dollars
      for a house
for that boy to live in

My daughter is a doctor

My daughter works at the T

My daughter is the head of the Carney Institute

My children go to Northeastern now

My son went to Spellman

My daughter attended Carnegie Mellon

My son went to BU

I sent my daughter to the Ursuline Academy

I kept after my son, and he woke up late, but he is doing pretty good for himself now

My son went to Boston Technical

My son’s a mechanic.

I have one son. He is 41

My oldest girl is a secretary at the John Hancock Building, my other is just a housewife

My oldest son is in the National Guard

My son died

My daughter has two children now

My child’s name is Victory. Named after my father.

Speakers of “You” draw from "Robert C. Hayden: Transcripts of oral interviews with Boston African American Railroad Workers, 1977-1991," at the Joseph P. Healey Digital Collection, University of Massachusetts, Boston.

• Albert Floyd Flake, 1989 November 20
• William Chandler, 1988-1989
• Overton Wesley Crawford, Nov 12, 1989; Albert Floyd Flake 
• Raymond Belcher, 1988-89
• Chico Holmes, 1988-89
• Albert Floyd Flake, November 20, 1989
• Mann Coley Mayo Sept. 12, 1989
• Raymond Belcher, 1988-89
• Frances E. Rideout, 1988-89
• Chorus
• Chico Holmes
• Chico Holmes
• Chorus