Monday, February 18, 2013

Red Caps

African Americans worked as baggage handlers from the early days of the railroad. The assisted with loading and unloading heavy luggage and often assisted the station master as necessary. Eventually these positions would be known as "redcaps" due to the red hats they wore as part of their uniform in the early 20th century. They worked long hours providing baggage handling and other customer services as needed at railroad stations all along the B&O's route.

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