THEY CALL ME GEORGE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF BLACK TRAIN PORTERS
Smartly dressed and smiling, Canada’s black train porters were a familiar sight to the average passenger—yet their minority status rendered them politically invisible, second-class in the social imagination that determined who was and who was not considered Canadian. Subjected to grueling shifts and unreasonable standards—a passenger missing his stop was a dismissible offense—the so-called Pullmen of the country’s rail lines were denied secure positions and prohibited from bringing their families to Canada, and it was their struggle against the racist Dominion that laid the groundwork for the multicultural nation we know today. Drawing on the experiences of these influential black Canadians, Cecil Foster’s They Call Me George demonstrates the power of individuals and minority groups in the fight for social justice and shows how a country can change for the better.
Cecil Foster is a Canadian novelist, scholar and journalist. Foster is a professor in the Africana and American Studies department (formerly known as Transnational Studies) University at Buffalo. He has published extensively on Canadian “multiculturalism,” and his works explore the historical and contemporary experiences of Black Canadians.
Other publications from this author include:
- Independence (2014)
- Blackness and Modernity: The Colour of Humanity and the Quest for Freedom (2007)
- Where Race Does Not Matter: The New Spirit of Modernity (2005)
- Dry Bone Memories (2001)
- Slammin' Tar: A Novel (1998)
- A Place Called Heaven: The Meaning of Being Black in Canada (1996)
- Sleep On, Beloved (1995)
- Caribana (1995)
- No Man in the House (1991)
- Distorted Mirror: Canada's Racist Face (1991)