Title
Honoring Philadelphia's Living Legends Brian Pollitt, William Dade, Owen Gowans, III, Theodore Hicks, Carl Riley, Gabriel Hart, and Catherine Hicks for their generation-defining contributions to African American History in Philadelphia.
Body
WHEREAS, Brian Pollitt is the current leader of the Transport Workers Union Local 234, SEPTA's largest union. It is fitting that within 100 years of the Philadelphia Transit Company going on strike for the promotion of eight African American's, SEPTA's union is led by an African American. On August 1, 1944, white employees of the Philadelphia Transit Company (PTC) launched a strike to protest the company's decision to promote eight black workers to the position of trolley driver, a job previously reserved for white men. As the U.S. prepared to enter World War II in the 1940s, Philadelphia quickly became one of the country's largest war production sources. As many as 600,000 workers relied on the PTC to get to their workplaces, including many factories. The strike threatened the entire city's ability to function and severely affected critical wartime production. The strike grew to include over 6,000 workers, prevented nearly two million people from traveling, and cost businesses almost $1 million per day. On the strike's third day, President Roosevelt authorized the War Department to take control of the PTC. Two days later, 5,000 U.S. Army troops moved into Philadelphia to prevent uprisings and protect PTC employees who crossed the picket line. Despite the military presence, the confrontation resulted in at least 13 acts of racial violence, including several non-fatal shootings. After more than a week, the strike ended when PTC employees facing threats of termination, loss of draft deferments, and ineligibility for unemployment benefits chose to return to work without achieving their goal of blocking black workers' opportunity for advancement. By September 1944, the PTC's first black trolley drivers were on duty; and ...
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