07/08/2019

In this illuminating debut biography, historian Washington celebrates a black New Yorker who won authority and influence in a segregated economy: James H. Williams, supervisor from 1909 to 1948 of the almost all-black staff of “Red Cap” railroad porters who carried bags and chaperoned passengers at Manhattan’s Grand Central Terminal. In Washington’s telling, Red Capping both reinforced and subverted racist expectations. A lowly service position, it nonetheless demanded polished social skills and drew well-educated workers; many of the men Williams hired used the job to put themselves through college or graduate school—and to survive when they were barred from professional positions because of their race. Washington packs a wealth of piquant historical detail into a well-paced narrative written in lucid prose. He paints a vivid portrait of the bustling golden age of train travel, and makes Williams a fitting exemplar of Harlem’s ambitious black middle class: he organized bands and sports teams, supported the NAACP and campaigned for civil rights, and used his high-profile Grand Central post to forge advantageous friendships with white leaders. (Theodore Roosevelt wrote a recommendation that helped Williams’s son get into New York’s segregated fire department, where he became the first black captain.) The result is a rich, stirring social history of African-Americans’ struggle to succeed in an unfair system. Photos. (Oct.)

"A sensitive and detailed life of James Williams, in the context of the city’s emerging African-American middle class."

"Few of us will have known anything about James Williams, and in this sense Washington’s book is similar to the overlooked lives featured these days in the New York Times obituary section. But as these fascinating obits tell us, these overlooked lives provide a fabulous insight into our shared history."

"Written with a curator's eye for compelling detail.... Washington does a masterful job detailing the struggles and triumphs of a family determined to make America live up to its promise of democracy."

"[T]he strength of Boss of the Grips is Washington’s absolute command of the broader story surrounding Williams, the lives of urban African-Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This is an indispensable story of the black experience and one that seldom gets noticed in other New York City history books on this period."

"[Washington] connects the dots with a deep and nuanced understanding of the people, the politics and the times. Boss of the Grips really is a reclamation of the historical record with a respect and a reverence for James Williams and the people he knew in the community that he was a part of."

"If you are nostalgic for the grand days of rail travel, you need to read this book.  If you have been pondering the prevalence of systemic racism in American society, you also need to read this book."

"Eric K. Washington’s Boss of the Grips: The Life of James H. Williams and the Red Caps of Grand Central Terminal is a deeply informed and personal story of the Harlem-based black men who worked at New York City’s major train station. The book is a remarkable telling of a story about race, class, labor, and social and economic history. This highly personal story speaks to much larger and universally significant issues."

"The subject of this tremendously involving book, James Williams, the chief porter for the “Red Caps” of Grand Central Station, is less well-known than virtually any figure on this list [of favorite biographies], but. . . Washington does a masterful job of showing how important - and fascinating - his life and times were."

"An at once inspiring and cautionary new social history of Harlem and beyond in the first half of the 20th century. Mr. Washington, an independent historian, reanimates a lost world of strivers who created a protean civic, artistic and commercial society to subvert the Jim Crow bias still resilient in the most liberal city in America.... An illuminating chronicle of success against the odds... It’s poignant to read all the stories of dogged advancement through deft maneuvering within a rigged system."

★ 2019-08-18
How racial challenges shaped the life of an influential African American.

Redcaps—porters and luggage handlers—at New York's Grand Central Terminal started in 1895 and by 1905 were entirely staffed by African American men. The job, writes Washington (Manhattanville: Old Heart of West Harlem, 2002) in a thoroughly researched and illuminating biography, was "a rare and propitious employment option in an era of rigid racial barriers." Foremost among the redcaps was James H. Williams (1878-1948), who, from 1909 to 1948, served as "a general factotum" whose duties involved "hiring, training, assigning, and supervising some five hundred men." Known as "the Chief," he became an influential figure in New York's African American community, famous "for rallying his Red Cap porters to support ‘racial uplift' causes." Those causes included supporting the NAACP; organizing mutual aid societies to alleviate financial troubles and bolster business ventures; mounting a fundraising campaign for a Colored YMCA and YMHA in Harlem; buying war bonds at the outbreak of World War I; and participating in the Grand Central Red Cap Orchestra, band, and chorus. The Red Cap Quartet performed regularly on national radio; the orchestra played at the 15th reunion of the Princeton University class of 1917. Besides promoting civic and cultural projects, Williams organized both a baseball and a basketball team, making sure that their games received positive media attention. Washington gives a palpable sense of the myriad obstacles blacks faced: Many redcaps, for example, had college training but saw "that a diploma did not ensure the ability to break through certain prevailing Jim Crow barriers." Williams' eldest son transcended the color line to become the first black fireman in Manhattan, inciting every fireman in the company to request a transfer (requests that were denied); a few years later, he was the first black fireman promoted to the rank of officer. As one former redcap wrote on the eve of World War II, as "a soldier fighting for those things that are constantly being reiterated as the American way," he protested that black workers were "tyrannized, intimated, and plagued."

An absorbing, fresh perspective on black history.