In the summer of 1944, eight Philadelphia Transit Company employees celebrated: They had just become the city’s first Black trolley drivers. And white trolley drivers immediately lost their minds.
Over half of the 11,000 transit company employees went on strike for more than a week, keeping nearly two million Philadelphians from getting to and from work. Among them were 600,000 workers whose jobs were essential to the war effort. The production of Navy equipment plummeted 70%. All of this because eight Black trolley drivers were eight too many.
Racial tensions were higher than ever; stores were vandalized, and a 13-year-old Black girl was shot. But the strike backfired: Not only did the Black men keep their promotions, but within a year, more than 900 of the city’s trolley drivers and conductors were Black.
White protestors were willing to risk losing a war because they couldn't stand the thought of eight Black men doing the same jobs as them. EIGHT.
The 1944 strike showed that whiteness would rather set the world on fire than accept Black equality. Because when we are treated equally, we’re unstoppable.