Six Degrees of Joan Countryman: A Lifetime of Civil Rights Connections

I gave a Zoom presentation in July about my favorite topic: local African American history. I talked briefly about the August 1944 Philadelphia Transit Company strike, a wildcat strike that occurred when operators of Philadelphia’s buses and trolleys walked off the job to protest the hiring of Black drivers. The city’s robust war production was severely curtailed. President Roosevelt sent 5,000 troops to the city. Strikers finally returned to work when they were told they would lose their draft deferments and be blackballed from any future war work.