African American Railroad Workers of Roanoke is a collection of 12 oral histories of N&W railroad workers. They are selected from a group of 20 interviews conducted by the author in 2013 which was an outgrowth of the 1998 oral history effort “African American Heritage on the Norfolk & Western 1930-1970” undertaken by the Virginia Museum of Transport.

Once in text form the recording transcripts were sent to the interviewees for approval and re-editing. The interviewee ages ranged from 40 to 98 and their years of service were between 2 and 47 years. The spectrum of occupations included a janitor, clerk, cook, track gang member, machinist, police officer, fireman, brakeman, engineer, conductor, and vice-president.

The two major themes of the series of personal experiences in this book are those of succeeding in spite of job segregation and succeeding after that segregation had been removed. In every instance the narrator provides information concerning their upbringing and the events that drove their decision to work for the N&W. Each one also gives ample credit to those individuals and neighborhood institutions which provided support, encouragement, and help during their time working for the railroad.

By their very nature, oral histories are somewhat disjointed and when these histories are transcribed to printed text they can be presented in a question and answer style or as a narrative. The format of this book is the latter. According to the author, this form of presentation does “[leave] more room for the stories and increase their impact” however the readers interest in the narrative waxes and wanes depending on the eloquence of the narrator. As a result, the transcribed experiences span the spectrum from somewhat difficult-to-follow to near page turning adventure. I think the book is a good addition to the collection of first person accounts of railroad work. (Text length - 143 pages, Total length - 156 pages) ( )