Porter Talk: Episode 5 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 meet some of the strong and devoted women who stood with porters. Without their commitment and persistence, union gains would not have been possible in light of the men’s absence while working on the rails. (Episode 5 trailer)

Duration: 1:23

File size: 2 MB Download MP3

Publish Date: March 13, 2025

• Transcript of Porter Talk episode 5 trailer

  Coming up in the fifth episode of “Porter Talk,” we’ll meet some of the strong and devoted women who stood with porters. As the railway pulled men away from their homes and communities, these women stepped up and became leaders in their own right. Union gains would not have been possible without their commitment to the cause.

  Saje Mathieu: These were the women, who year after year, month after month, generation after generation, witnessed their loved ones come back from work feeling belittled, dehumanized, frustrated, harmed, accosted, sometimes racially accosted, sick from having to work in smoky, sooty spaces, suffering from constant sleep deprivation. It is those women who had had to spackle those men back together, right, stitched them back together, ironed those uniforms, reminded the men that they were respected at home and in their communities, if not always in their workplace.

  Stay tuned for the next episode of “Porter Talk,” entitled “The Women Who Stood With Porters.” You can subscribe for free to Discover Library and Archives Canada wherever you get your podcasts!

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

Featuring: Saje Mathieu

Voiceover for the French version of this podcast trailer: Christelle Tchako Womassom

Narrator biographies

Scholars, Storytellers and Community Knowledge Keepers

Dr. Saje Mathieu is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Minnesota. She holds a joint PhD in History and African American Studies from Yale University and has been a fellow at the Warren Center and the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University, the Center for American Studies at the University of Heidelberg, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Her first book, North of the Color Line: Migration and Black Resistance in Canada, 1870-1955, details the history of African American and West Indian sleeping car porters in Canada and the social, cultural, legal and political impacts of their employment. Dr. Mathieu’s current work is focused on the global experiences of Black soldiers during World War I.

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Send your feedback to: bac.balados-podcasts.lac@canada.ca