Welder at work on railroad track
Welder at work on railroad track, United States, c. 1943.
Photo by U.S. Office of War Information.
Black men and women also worked on major construction projects throughout
the Western Hemisphere, ranging from colonial churches, forts, and public
buildings to modern transportation systems such as railroads, steamships,
and the Panama Canal. In fact, emigrants from the British West Indies
provided most of the labor needed to construct the Panama Railroad during
the 1850s and the Panama Canal from 1881 to 1914. It is estimated that
more than 20,000 people from the Caribbean region died working on the
canal between 1906 and 1923.