Museum launches online registry of black railroad laborers

CHICAGO (AP) - The A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum in Chicago is launching an online registry of black railroad laborers that tells of their experiences on the job.

The Chicago Tribune reports (http://trib.in/1W6rJKH) the registry will allow workers' relatives and scholars to preserve oral histories on the website that otherwise might be lost.

It will tell the stories of people like Theodore Berrien, who worked as a Pullman porter from about 1940 to 1969.

During his career, Berrien worked on President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's funeral train on its route between Georgia and Washington, D.C. His grandson recalls Berrien spoke of the kindness of Eleanor Roosevelt, who thanked him for his services.

Museum founder Lyn Hughes says the project initially concentrated on those who served high-end patrons of passenger trains. Hughes widened the registry's scope to include all African-American railroad employees from 1865 to 1969.

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Information from: Chicago Tribune, http://www.chicagotribune.com