Before You Go: When the Philly Strike Struck Out
Before You Go
English - October 24, 2021 04:41 - 40 minutes - 37.3 MB - ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsHistory Society & Culture Documentary 100yearold storyteller music screenwriting archive griot authors blacklivesmatter book club writers Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Next Episode: Before You Go: A Journey through Black Appalachia
Hosts Nicole Franklin and Bryant Monteilh bring audiences a voice from the aftermath of the 1944 Philadelphia transit strike that shut down the city and disrupted the war effort at the time. White workers were determined that Black workers would not be promoted from the back rooms to train and trolley conductors. At 100 years old Merrill Pittman Cooper shares his very candid view as an African American driver hired just one year later during very tumultuous times. He eventually meets his wife while driving the bus and he retires having served as the first African American Philadelphia transit workers union president. Mr. Cooper's story is an American story. And, there's one question Mr. Cooper has that continues to linger.