African Americans in South Texas History

The Colored Trainmen of America

The Colored Trainmen of America Kingsville Black Labor and the Railroads JENNIFEr BOrrEr sOuTH TExAs urBANIZED lATEr THAN MANy parts of the state due to geographical conditions such as the lack of an available water source and sparse vegetation.Technological advances of the day such as barbed wire and windmills closed the open range and aided the area’s cattle ranches.The availability of water and the flourishing cattle and farming industries attracted settlers to the area. But there were more reasons for urbanization in south Texas. settlers needed a method of transportation to move their goods to a market. It was the railroad that created many south Texas towns, one of which was Kingsville. In 1900, B. F.yoakum, general manager of the san Francisco railway, and uriah lott, southTexas transport industry entrepreneur,united to build a railroad in the rio GrandeValley.At the same time,the King ranch needed a way to transport cattle to markets in other areas of the united states. robert Justus Kleberg sr., son-inlaw of Henrietta King, owner of the King ranch, joined yoakum in 1902 and planned to build the st.louis,Brownsville and Mexico railway (slB&M). It was chartered January 12, 1903.1 In June of the same year, the construction plans were finalized in a contract.2 landowners between Corpus Christi and Brownsville supplied the land on which the track was laid. Henrietta King granted 76,675.4 acres, more than any other donor.3 After the completion of the railroad Jeff N. Miller, general manager of the slB&M, brought the first train to Kingsville July 4, 1904.4 In giving his account of the arrival of the first train Marcus Phillips , an early resident of Kingsville, stated,“The principle signs of civilization at Kingsville were the tents of [railroad] construction crews.” ฀ 151฀ 152 JENNIFEr BOrrEr He also remembered that a crowd of about 300 people gathered at the depot to witness the arrival of that initial run.5 With the railway came hundreds of railroad employees who would work on the trains themselves, in the repair shops, and in the general offices that were to be constructed in Kingsville. Due to the large tract of land donated by the King ranch and the involvement of her son-in-law, robert Kleberg, Henrietta King exercised tremendous influence on the development of the town of Kingsville. King gave 853 acres of land upon which to plan and build the townsite of Kingsville.6 King also supplied land to churches, established the Kingsville Publishing Company, financed the Kingsville Power Company, and dispensed funds for construction of a school for the community.7 she was involved extensively in almost every aspect of the development of infrastructure in the town. Her philanthropic nature even sparked rumors in“The Quarters,”the black community in Kingsville, that she had demanded that the slB&M employ only black brakemen and shop workers to work on the railroad.8 No concrete evidence exists that King actually made this demand, but her legendary status and importance to the community supported this rumor. Kingsville’s black community drew its lifeblood from the slB&M railway.There were few jobs available for African Americans, and most that did exist were manual labor jobs. Of those, the most lucrative was work on the railroad.This was the vocation of most of the men living in The Quarters of Kingsville. Brakeman Woodie Horn said,“Mostly all the jobs blacks had in Kingsville were railroad jobs. Practically all Negroes worked there, and this is the reason why the railroad made such a big impact on our community. . . . Even the school teachers didn’t make the kind of money we did on the railroad.”9 Employment by the railroad made it easier for African Americans living in The Quarters to combat the poverty that threatened most blacks in the south, who often had neither the education, connections, nor opportunities for upward mobility. railroad employment was also more stable than other occupations accessible by African Americans, and these jobs led to better housing, improved education, and higher status within the black community.10 Colored฀Trainmen฀of฀America฀ 153฀ Working for the railroad was comparatively lucrative for Kingsville ’s black citizens, but it was also often dangerous and unpredictable .When the slB&M filed its yearly report with the Texas railroad Commission, reports of accidents were included. In 1918, black brakemen were injured in thirteen of twenty-one train accidents. In 1919, brakemen...