Subway station
Union Station
Grand Beaux-Arts train hall where redcaps organized for fair pay beneath gilded, coffered ceilings.
0:00≈ 2 min
Location
0:00≈ 2 min
About this audio guide
This guide to Union Station in Washington, D.C. traces the men known as redcaps, who carried bags across this Beaux-Arts hall for decades before the railroads paid them a cent. It follows their organizing drive in the 1930s, the union they founded, and the fight that grew into the International Brotherhood of Red Caps under A. Philip Randolph. Listen near the grand hall's gilded arches, where a 1950 photograph once captured the DC branch and its president, George W. Robinson.
This audio guide was created using AI.