Murder on the Kansas City Special?: Pullman porters, emotions, and the strange case of J. H. Wilkins
J. H. Wilkins, an African American railroad porter for the Pullman Company, was killed while on duty in April 1930. How he met his death has never been fully determined, but the Pullman Company’s investigation file exposes the dangerous and racialised emotional terrain that porters navigated daily o...
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| Format: | Article |
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Cambridge University Press
2019
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50680/ |
| _version_ | 1848798313088811008 |
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| author | Pearce, Rosemary |
| author_facet | Pearce, Rosemary |
| author_sort | Pearce, Rosemary |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | J. H. Wilkins, an African American railroad porter for the Pullman Company, was killed while on duty in April 1930. How he met his death has never been fully determined, but the Pullman Company’s investigation file exposes the dangerous and racialised emotional terrain that porters navigated daily on their journeys across the US. By examining Wilkins’ death, and the work of Pullman porters more broadly, this article makes the case that white control of black emotions in occupational and public spaces was a significant characteristic of the Jim Crow era, and demands further scholarly attention. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:17:47Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-50680 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:17:47Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-506802020-05-04T19:44:59Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50680/ Murder on the Kansas City Special?: Pullman porters, emotions, and the strange case of J. H. Wilkins Pearce, Rosemary J. H. Wilkins, an African American railroad porter for the Pullman Company, was killed while on duty in April 1930. How he met his death has never been fully determined, but the Pullman Company’s investigation file exposes the dangerous and racialised emotional terrain that porters navigated daily on their journeys across the US. By examining Wilkins’ death, and the work of Pullman porters more broadly, this article makes the case that white control of black emotions in occupational and public spaces was a significant characteristic of the Jim Crow era, and demands further scholarly attention. Cambridge University Press 2019-08 Article PeerReviewed Pearce, Rosemary (2019) Murder on the Kansas City Special?: Pullman porters, emotions, and the strange case of J. H. Wilkins. Journal of American Studies, 53 (3). pp. 683-702. ISSN 1469-5154 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-american-studies/article/murder-on-the-kansas-city-special-pullman-porters-emotions-and-the-strange-case-of-j-h-wilkins/75FF2C1E6233A75EC42DF4D51DF7FC77 doi:10.1017/S0021875818000476 doi:10.1017/S0021875818000476 |
| spellingShingle | Pearce, Rosemary Murder on the Kansas City Special?: Pullman porters, emotions, and the strange case of J. H. Wilkins |
| title | Murder on the Kansas City Special?: Pullman porters, emotions, and the strange case of J. H. Wilkins |
| title_full | Murder on the Kansas City Special?: Pullman porters, emotions, and the strange case of J. H. Wilkins |
| title_fullStr | Murder on the Kansas City Special?: Pullman porters, emotions, and the strange case of J. H. Wilkins |
| title_full_unstemmed | Murder on the Kansas City Special?: Pullman porters, emotions, and the strange case of J. H. Wilkins |
| title_short | Murder on the Kansas City Special?: Pullman porters, emotions, and the strange case of J. H. Wilkins |
| title_sort | murder on the kansas city special?: pullman porters, emotions, and the strange case of j. h. wilkins |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50680/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50680/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50680/ |