Porter Talk: Episode 2 trailer

 

Discover Library and Archives Canada presents “Porter Talk.” This mini-series explores the lived experiences of Black men who laboured as porters for both the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railways during the twentieth century.

Stanley G. Grizzle, a Canadian Pacific Railway porter for twenty years as well as a celebrated activist, civil servant, and citizenship judge, was also an avid historian who went to great lengths to document and preserve Black History in Canada and beyond. His collection is now held at Library and Archives Canada. Join us as we explore who the porters were, where they came from, and how they found themselves on the rails. (Episode 2 trailer)

Duration: 0:53

File size: 1.22 MB Download MP3

Publish Date: September 26, 2024

• Transcript of Porter Talk episode 2 trailer

  Discover Library and Archives Canada presents “Porter Talk.” This production explores the lived experiences of Black men who laboured as sleeping car porters for both the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railways during the twentieth century. Their voices, along with those of their wives and children, relay stories of both hardship and resilience.

  James Laverne Robbins (JLR): I enjoyed the companionship of the porters themselves, but actually working there, it was just a job to get by, so I could raise my family, and Black men couldn’t get a job no place else.

  Subscribe for free to Discover Library and Archives Canada wherever you get your podcasts. Episode 2 of “Porter Talk—Who were the Porters” will be released in October.

Host: Richard Provencher, Chief, Media Relations, Communications and Policy Branch

Featuring: James Laverne Robbins

Voiceover for the French version of this podcast trailer: Roldson Dieudonné

Narrator biographies

James Laverne Robbins was born in February 1919 in North Buxton, Ontario, a community that was established by formerly enslaved African Americans who escaped to Canada via the Underground Railway to gain freedom. Robbins began working for the CPR’s Toronto Division in June 1940 after being recruited by Reverend C.A. Johnson of the British Methodist Episcopal Church, who also laboured as a porter. In his early years, Robbins just worked summers. After the end of the Second World War, in which he served for four-and-a-half years, he joined the CPR fulltime, working for the company until his retirement in 1979. (Source: 417393 [part 2])

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