Aug. 24 Talk: Historian discusses African American rail workers

Sheree Scarborough, author of African American Railroad Workers of Roanoke: Oral Histories of the Norfolk & Western, will speak Aug. 24 at 7 p.m. at the Link Museum on Shenandoah Avenue NE, Roanoke. The talk is in conjunction with A New Look at Link: His Life and Legacy, an exhibit of seldom seen photographs of O. Winston Link.

Scarborough is an award-winning historian with 30-plus years of experience in oral and public history. Her interviews in 2013 with Norfolk & Western Railway workers employed at N&W give a picture of life from segregation to a more diverse workforce at what is now Norfolk Southern Corp. Her book was sponsored by the Historical Society of Western Virginia, which operates the Link and History museums housed in a former N&W passenger station. The station is in the historic Gainsboro community of Roanoke where many of the book’s voices grew up and watched the area vanish in the demands of urban renewal.

Scarborough’s book features the results of interviews with retired Norfolk & Western and Norfolk Southern railroad employees and some then currently employed by the railroad. They represent some “firsts” in employment such as the first African American machinist, clerk in Freight Traffic, supervisor of the East End Shops, police officer and engineer. For the Virginia Division there was the first chief dispatcher and the first operational vice president not only for N&W but for the entire railroad industry.

The exhibit runs through Nov. 5. The museums are open Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admissions are adults $6, senior (60+)/military/students $5, child 4-17 $3; under-3 and members get in free. The lecture is free, with donations welcome. Doors open at 6:15 p.m.