A RICHLY STORIED AVENUE (cont.)
not shy away from the complexities
or the difficulties of the subject.
Lamont, a senior at Germantown
High, mused later, “Every time they
talked about segregation, it wasn’t like
a bad thing. It was weird. I expected
it to be uncomfortable, but in a way,
they were sad when [people] were
brought together….Back then, people
stuck together because they were set
apart. Today, everyone has freedom,
so everyone’s going to the beat of their
own drum.”
A Germantown High School student
reflects on the Germantown Speaks
events at a follow-up meeting.
inconvenience. For the older participants,
however, it was a mild echo of the transit
strike of 1944—one of the few memories
that surfaced in all four Germantown
Speaks events.
Facing a labor shortage during World War
II, the Philadelphia Transit Corporation
promoted several African Americans to
motormen and conductors in 1944. In
response, nearly 10,000 white employees
revolted, refusing to operate their vehicles
for a full week. The walkout threatened
to shut down war production in the
city, prompting President Franklin
D. Roosevelt to send federal troops to
intervene. All of the Germantown Speaks
participants remember soldiers with guns
posted behind the drivers on buses and
trolleys throughout the city.
One high school student was still
incred [