It's named after
the town of Atchison, Kansas, so at one remove from the man. Hope that helps.
I appreciate that attempt, but I already knew that it was one removed from him. I'd just never heard of him before, and
really don't like him, and at least for the next few months I won't help but be reminded he exists whenever I think of the AT&SF (which, as a giant railroad nerd, is quite likely). It's only
very minorly tained for me, thankfully, because I'm supremely confident it wasn't some "hidden statement" of whatever—for God's sake, one of the Class I railroads was literally "Southern Railway" and it's motto/catchphrase was "Southern serves the South," like if the AT&SF wanted to be more racist than usual, as far as railroads go (e.g. abide, however reluctantly, to Jim Crow laws and have segregated passenger seating (which I think goes to show that money almost always trumps prejudice, because even railroads based more in the (upper, at the very least) South, such as Norfolk & Western, while undoubtedly discriminatory, did
not like having segregated passenger cars, because it was inefficient and wasted money—why have two half-full Pullman cars, one Black only and one White only, when you could have one full Pullman car?), and essentially only hire Black people as Pullman Porters, Pullman maids, Firemen, and the like—they could get respectable and well-paying jobs, but they couldn't get into positions of authority, such as being an engine Engineer, or management.
Admittedly, I'm
pretty sure you could get a good job at the Pennsylvania Railroad Altoona works, where the PRR made its locomotives and rolling stock, as well as having highly respected laboratories as a highly skilled, middle-class worker as an African-American, but, outside of starting a business to cater to those workers, that was about as high as you could climb with the railroad. Not that I expect the reconstruction timeline to unduly focus on railroads, other than their importance and their extremely shitty behavior during this time period, but it
would be really cool to see how this more radical Civil War and much more successful reconstruction changes that sort of thing, i.e. making it acceptable to not just have a few skilled Black workers, but having Black (design, not engine) engineers, managers, even company presidents and the like.), then they could've, and I think would've, been
way more explicit about it.
[Edit:] Also, apparently, Topeka gets its name from the "Kansa-Osage" people's language, which means "The place we dig potatoes," and was founded (well, "laid out," which I take to mean as when a meaningful number of non-native people settled there) as one of the
anti-slavery towns, so that
does make me feel better and help balance it out.
Actually, I
do wonder how this timeline will affect Pullmans—IIRC Pullman's first or second car was chosen to carry Lincoln's body on the funeral train (because it was, like,
the nicest railroad car in North America), which played no small roll in him getting his big break, and for people to both want to be able to ride in a Pullman passenger car, and for railroads wanting to buy those cars to offer to passengers. Assuming that he still manages to get people to want to ride them and railroads to buy them, I also wonder how Pullman Porters will be affected. For us, they were synonymous with "African-American," and were, like a teaching job for African-American women, a highly valued job that was respected, respectable, paid well, and (I think) a job that suffered fewer indignities and insults than usual. Is that still the case here? After all, my understanding is that the main reason it was almost (if not actually entirely, not 100% sure there) entirely Black was because it was acceptable for Black people to have a job where they were subservient, even if they were dressed nicely and paid well and also got tips. This is just speculation on my part, but I also imagine that it would've rankcled
a lot of white people to have a white Pullman Porter subservient to a Black passenger, either as another passenger, or as that white Pullman Porter.
Regardless, even if, for whatever reason, it's still a job extremely strongly associated with African Americans (The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters is and always shall be the undisputed union GOAT), at least we won't ever have that practice of Pullman Porters being called "George." (Before sometime in the 20th century—somewhere between 1900 and 1920 or 25, I'm not really sure—Pullman Porters did not have name tags, and instead of, I dunno,
fucking asking them for their name, the common practice was to refer to the Porter as "George," regardless of their name, short for "George Pullman's boy," which is a practice that can be easily and directly tied back to slavery. ANYWAY. Enough of me rambling about railroads, Pullman Porters,—although I'm hoping you're taking notes, Red_Galiray!—and the various other railroad-related things.
