Take This Hammer: Stories of African American Railroaders
November 1, 2017 | Mae Gilliland Wright, PhD
The NRRHoF is creating a series of blog posts during the month of November titled “Take This Hammer: Stories of African American Railroaders.” Our blogs will be part of a year-long worldwide celebration of the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture called Lift Every Voice.
The NRRHOF is pleased to collaborate with the NMAAHC in fulfillment of our core educational mission. You can read more about other NMAAHC events here.
The title of our series is derived from the song Take This Hammer, which was sung by prison, logging and railroad forced labor workers. If you’ve not heard it, here is a link to Lead Belly’s version:
The first posts in the series, which cover the pre-Civil War and Civil War era, will be posted during the week of November 6th. Bookmark this page or follow us on Facebook for updates.