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Page 2 of 3 In Canada, as in the United States, the 1950s saw a dramatic change in the railroad industry. R.J. McLellan, Canadian Railways Council No. 2 general chairman, wrote about the increasing “dieselization” of the Canadian rail lines in the August 1952 Electrical Workers’ Journal. He said, “The Gaspe' Coast Line, running from Campbellton to Gaspe', New Brunswick, required replacement of engine houses and facilities.. [Because of the cost, the company] decided to dieselize the line with 15 1,200 hp diesel-electric road switchers of the Morse type....The 15 new road diesel-electric locomotives would replace about 20 or 22 steam locomotives.”
1952 brought new leadership to Washington and, in a manner of speaking, to Ottawa as well. Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president of the United States; and, following the death of King George VI, Elizabeth II was crowned queen of Great Britain. President Eisenhower, not always a close friend of labor, did set the stage for real progress for working people, especially in the areas of civil rights and transportation. Much of the civil-rights movement, which made such great strides in the 1960s, began to take shape in the ‘50s. Rosa Parks set off the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott in 1955, which eventually led to the overturning of the ordinance relegating blacks to the back of buses. The same year, the Supreme Court reversed its 1896 Plessy v Ferguson decision allowing “separate but equal” facilities for different races when it mandated the integration of public schools. In 1957 President Eisenhower called in troops to enforce a federal court order allowing nine black students to attend the public, then-all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Previously, the Arkansas governor had called up the National Guard to keep the children out. And that year Congress passed the first Civil Rights Bill since Reconstruction. Page 2 of 3 |
1954 Senator Joseph McCarthy holds hearings accusing members of the army of being Communists. Racial segregation in public schools is ruled unconstitutional. Regency Electronics gains patent on the first transistor radio. AFL and CIO agree to refrain from raiding one another's unions. The largest labor union convention ever convened was held in Chicago by the IBEW. |
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