NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
[DATE]
[Insert your information here:
Local Project Director, Title and Organization
Phone Number and Email
Website]
Presentation Explores Ethnic Railroad Crews across Kansas
[Community Name] – [Organization Name] in [Community Name] will host “Ethnic
Labor and Small Towns on the Rock Island Rail Line,” a presentation and discussion
by M.J. Morgan on [Date] at [Time] at [Location and Address of Presentation].
Members of the community are invited to attend the free program. Contact the
[Host Organization Name] at [Phone Number] for more information. The program is
made possible by the Kansas Humanities Council.
[List any details about local event here]
Perceived as transient laborers and barely mentioned in railroad histories, ethnic
crews not only worked the rail lines but also impacted the cultures of rural Kansas
communities. Morgan will discuss the oral histories of residents who remember when
Mexican and town women exchanged food recipes, workers lived in boxcars, and
residents could hear the sounds of Greek music echoing over the fields at twilight.
M.J. Morgan is the director of research at the Chapman Center for Rural Studies at
Kansas State University. Her specialty is the reconstruction of lost landscapes and
environments as well as research into cultures and peoples whose voices do not
often appear in standard histories.
"Oral histories from residents of a small Clay County town in the 1960s tell how
ethnic railroad work crews had figured in community history,” said Morgan. “In some
cases, resentment flared; but more common was social interaction and curiosity. For
instance, when Bohemian rail crews worked in Riley County, the Rock Island Line
shipped in three foot long bread loaves and ‘dumped them’ into wheelbarrows to
transport."
“Ethnic Labor and Small Towns on the Rock Island Rail Line” is part of the Kansas
Humanities Council’s The Way We Worked Speakers Bureau, featuring presentations
and discussions examining the theme of work and working in Kansas and how these
stories help define us.
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The Kansas Humanities Council conducts and supports community-based programs,
serves as a financial resource through an active grant-making program, and
encourages Kansans to engage in the civic and cultural life of their communities. For
more information about KHC programs contact the Kansas Humanities Council at
785/357-0359 or visit online at www.kansashumanities.org.
For more information about “Ethnic Labor and Small Towns on the Rock Island Rail
Line” in [Community] contact the [Host Organization] at [Phone Number] or visit
[Website].
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