N&W in 1911--

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
February 17, 1911

DONE TO DEATH IN HOUSE OF ITS FRIENDS
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Weakening at the Critical Moment, Democrats Defeat Jim Crow Bill
    Charleston, W. Va., February 16. (Special)--Weakening at the critical moment a majority of the Democratic members of the lower house this afternoon voted against the passage of the jim crow car bill, one of the pledges that they made during the campaign, and as a result the bill was defeated by a vote of forty-five to twenty-nine, the entire Republican representation voting against the passage of the bill and thus saving the colored voter of this state from being compelled to ride in separate cars.
[The balance of the article was about non-railroad legislative matters and is omitted here.]
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[In those days Virginia had a "Jim Crow" law requiring the separation of the races in railway cars in that state, but Ohio and West Virginia did not.  This must have caused a problem for the N&W on eastbound trains out of Bluefield because the train crews had to see that the races were separated before reaching Glen Lyn, VA, just 23 miles east.  This must have caused some resentment among those who had been sitting in a mixed race car but were forced to move to a "Jim Crow" car at Bluefield.]

Gordon Hamilton
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