I know of a couple of great young men who work at a railroad museum. This is what they call stereotyping. They are proud of the work they do and are great roll models for other young people who visit and see them proudly working.

And...Pullman never sold tickets to African-American customers. Period. Pullman even took old (worn and repaired) blankets and dyed them blue for use by porters. The Black porters were not considered equals and could not even share blankets with white passengers.

T7

The sad reality is that all hobbies, and especially ours, typically require not only the commitment of time, but resources--of membership fees/dues, of the money AND TIME to travel to and from a museum/shop/etc., the transportation to and from said places, etc. Far too often, those resources are lacking among the African-American community in urban areas. You can also see the same distortions of demographics in other hobbies and avocations that require similar commitments of resources--the problem is economic, not cultural or prejudicial, at least in my experience.

How many of your operations are within easy access of a city or regional transit route? The Baltimore Streetcar Museum and B&O Railroad Museum are. Wilmington & Western, maybe. Others?

The same resources that can act as an outreach to not-well-to-do African-American potential members of any age also apply to Latinos, Jews, Native Americans, or those of ANY ethnic or racial persuasion. The BSM occasionally attracts groups of Jews looking for activities on Sundays that would never get to a place open Saturdays only, for example.

I have had a gentleman who worked as a ticket agent for both the Santa Fe and the Southern Pacific in Southern California during parts of the 1950s and 60s tell me that the railroads had a subtle code for identify white, Mexican and black passengers when calling into the coach seat reservation office. The feeling was that all the passengers would be more comfortable setting next to one of their own ethnicity.

Similarly, I am aware of at least one railroad that noted on the coach reservation cards whether a passenger was male or female. In 1970 I collected railroad reservation cards and the use of a printed M and F at each seat space was noted on the printed form of one railroad.

Awhile ago I started this thread to discuss the implications of desegregation on the railroad community and how it affects day to day relations with the black community. What has been on my mind lately and perhaps some of our older members can shed is how 'inclusive' were your original entities? Did you or your members at one point practice discrimination and segregation or were societies generally an open environment for the period? Looking into the past of organizations such as the IRM, ARM, B&O RM and others I'm poised to know exactly how membership was promoted specifically minority persons understandably younger audiences. I know this is a very personal more so sensitive question so I'll keep it to a minimum. At the same time I do not under any circumstance look to shame or guilt bear any RYPN user for past behavior; the past is the past and I nor anyone can change it.

Cameron