I think what we all need to be aware of is the fluid nature of the current social changes going on. BLM was a small splinter, somewhat radical "group" that has shortly evolved into a "socially acceptable" movement. Personally, I think "ALL Lives Matter" but that is irrelevant to the situation now.
What we do need to avoid and prevent is what I understand has happened in South Africa where steam trains (and maybe all trains) are considered to be "White Man's Toys" and are to be eliminated. Preservation of history is at stake here, and keeping history itself relevant to the new generations is critical to Preservation's survival.
The idea of eliminating "bad times" in history threatens the whole reason to study history--so we don't repeat mistakes and civilization can move forward, not backward. How that can best be done is a matter of great debate, but the debate needs to happen.

Have you ever been invited to a child's birthday party, and if so did you sing "Happy Birthday to EVERYONE."? When they sing "God Bless America" do you sing "God Bless All COUNTRIES."? At a sporting event do you say "Hooray for ALL teams."? If you saw someone drowning, screaming "Help me" would you stand there with your arms crossed and say "Help EVERYONE."? In all of those instances, including the example you mentioned, it is inappropriate to broaden the discussion beyond the issue at hand and is regarded, appropriately I think, as an attempt to minimize it. You can translate each of them into "I don't care about you and am angry that anyone is paying attention to you."

Well, as I stated, my thought(s) are irrelevant to the present situation. As to your examples, yes, that is the popular trend--participation trophies for everyone. I'm not saying I agree with it, but I do acknowledge it. Our Society is going through some major upheavals and we are going to have to ride the roller coaster to survive.
This discussion was started with a photo of someone overstepping their authority and putting a campaign sign on an historic artifact move. The signs were removed, but not before photos of them went viral. That's what happens in today's world of instant communications.

We-e-e-e-e-e-l-l-l-l-llllllllllllllll..............

To answer the questions of what to do about Jim Crow cars. Just state that there are sad but necessary remind her of our troubled past that need to be remembered and encourage visitors to defy the signs and maybe take selfies and tag them #defiance. Pullman was actually a story of Triumph in the African American community because it has petacular the racism backfired. You had a group of people they were integral to the trains operation and all shared common interests Covington to unionize and demand better treatment.

Agreed. I was a conductor on a tourist railroad with a Jim Crow car. People appreciated the history when it was well presented. Ironically the only people who complained about it to me were white. Several African American families who rode with us, many with multi-generational family members who remembered Jim Crow, complimented the history being preserved. This was in the 2000’s.

Petacular?

The B&O museum has a Jim Crow car, and doesn't shirk as what it was. At the same time, they also say "this is what it was back then, but we'll evolved".

Jacob Lyman: Please elaborate more on ideas in your call for action. Saying "DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT" is vague and not necessarily as effective as outlining what that "something" is. Thanks.

Yes, as a matter of fact, that is one of the museums where I participate.
Thank you for asking!

This is, historically, where most every such radical activist movement loses its support. When the "changes" demanded reach the general public, reluctance and opposition mount.

Actually, more typically of late, the litany of demands that accumulates as "all sides are heard" becomes such a hodgepodge of random demands which strays SO far from the original supposed focus of the protests or calls for action--from demands of the outright abolition of police forces to demands for vegan school food options to free college tuition for all to drug decriminalization to free healthcare--that 1) the original "call for action" is lost in the shuffle and 2) the "movement" gets labelled as "Marxist" or the like.

Getting back to our focus:
What is the Strasburg RR, Cass Scenic RR, the California State RR Museum, the Monticello RR Museum, the little local station museum in New Hampshire or Iowa or Arizona, the Rocky Mountaineer, the Seashore Trolley Museum, the EBT, the ATSF 3751 and 2926 groups, the Oregon Rail Heritage Museum, the Verde Canyon RR, or the Heart of Dixie RR Museum (to name randomly selected samples) supposed to "DO SOMETHING" about what's (supposedly) causing those multiple instances of "civil unrest" many, many miles away in most cases?

What I plan to do about it.

I am making plans for February of next year (our off season) in concert with African-American History Month to do a series of website and Facebook posts on the the racial issues of the Pullman Company, the Porter's first union, how prisoners were used to build railroads, and the passing of the old school gandy dancers from mechanization and the base of the gandy dancer work song from the old work songs.

To address the history, we have to acknowledge the bad. To ignore the bad, is to ignore the history.

You keep calling BLM things like "radical". Why?

Keep in mind, polling indicates something like 60% of Americans support the movement:
https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2020/06 ... -movement/

I can see the political reasoning behind exhibiting the airplane with zero interpretive information, but believe it to be flawed.

Museums, like reporters, have a responsibility to give objective facts, share voices on both sides of the debate (within reason, of course), and give visitors the spark to draw their own conclusions.

Shying away from saying anything only frees the audience to create their own meaning from bias and half-remembered misconceptions. Neutral? Yes, to a fault. But this approach is neither responsible as an educational institution nor is it fair to any of the people involved in the history, on either side.



A Jim Crow car is an artifact with tells a painful history. A statue is a monument which glorifies a person's character and ignores the rest. I have not heard of any protestors comparing apples and oranges in this manner, except in cases like the Enola Gay where significant parts of history were glossed over.



Education is always a great response.

To commemorate this year's anniversary of Women's Suffrage, I worked on a Facebook post series, one per week for all 52 weeks, about women in transportation history. The number of unsolicited sexist and racist comments revealed how much work remains in combating ignorance and fear with objective, high-quality education.

I think it's important to remember that the fairly new Smithsonian Museum of African-American History and Culture has a Jim Crow car built into it, like SR 1401 is built into the American History museum down the street. They wanted it preserved and interpreted, so I don't really think having one on your tourist railroad or museum properly handled is going to be a big deal within that community. How we represent something like the role of railroads in the displacement and genocide of Native Americans could very well be something more contentious.