The Last Train North - Hardcover

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Excerpt

The Last Train North

It was a major news event. It was covered by Greenville's DeltaDemocrat Times, and all the major Delta radio stations sadly carriedthe news. It was a day of mourning in Greenville, Mississippi. Foralmost a century the Illinois Central Railroad had not only carriedhundreds of thousands of southern blacks to the cities of the North, butalso it had been one of the chief means of transportation forMississippi Delta whites to travel to and fro. However, the economicconsiderations of the times and the changing modes of transportation hadfactored into the decision that caused the old train station to bedraped in mourning garb. Today the last engine would puff its way northpast Metcalfe into Memphis and eventually to St. Louis, a hub stationwhere all passengers boarded different trains to their finaldestinations.

On this last day, hoping to be part of history, families were takingshort trips. Children were watching as the era that ushered in theirparents slowly faded into the distance. Cabs carrying hurried passengerswould soon be vying for spots at the bus station instead of theGreenville train depot. Cleaning people who treasured their knowledge ofthe ins and outs of both the "colored" and "white" waiting rooms at thedepot would be without work. The colored porters who loomed larger thanlife for those of us from the small rural communities would also saygoodbye to the Illinois Central ? a vehicle that had mobilized themuscles of the South to support the industrialized North.

The train had stopped serving my hometown, Glen Allan, Mississippi,almost twenty years earlier, and only the old folk still talked aboutthose glory days. But Greenville was the Queen City of the Delta and wefelt the train would pay homage to her position forever. From the trainstation located right in the heart of downtown Greenville, this majorartery had served its time well. Now one of the South's busiest portswould become a relic, a place to renovate, a sight to point out as onepassed walking or driving, a place of poignant memories. Here loved onesleft and never returned, but here also had been the focal point of aromantic notion that brought travelling lovers home. Greenville was aqueen and the Illinois Central had been a proper suitor, but now theromance was over. The queen was left with only a wooden buildingbordered by wood and iron rails as a reminder of an affair that hadlasted for almost a hundred years.

A few months earlier, I too had been part of this history. I had beenamong the last residents of Glen Allan to ride the train north out ofthe Mississippi Delta. Perhaps it was known at the time of my ride thatthe train would soon stop running, but the news had not yet reached GlenAllan. I boarded the train that day with intentions of riding it overand over again to the South to visit. After all, Ma Ponk, my great auntwho raised me, had said more than once that the better class of peoplerode the train.

Continues...

Excerpted from The Last Train Northby Clifton L. Taulbert Copyright © 2003 by Clifton L. Taulbert. Excerpted by permission.
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