All Aboard the Freedom Train

The Freedom Train Brings the Spirit of 1776 to Wheeling

“Here comes the Freedom Train
You better hurry down
Just like a Paul Revere
It’s comin’ into your hometown
Inside the freedom train
You’ll find a precious freight
Those words of liberty
The documents that made us great…”
–from The Freedom Train (1948) by Irving Berlin

On September 14, 1948, a glossy white, seven-car train with bold, red, white and blue striping and a golden eagle on its Alco PA-1 diesel-electric locomotive, pulled into Wheeling’s Pennsylvania Railroad depot at the Wharf, just above what is now Heritage Port, for a twelve hour visit. On board the were “127 of the nation’s most priceless historical documents,” including Thomas Jefferson’s rough draft of the Declaration of Independence with corrections, Washington’s copy of the original printed draft of the Constitution, a manuscript copy of the Gettysburg Address held by Abraham Lincoln, and Francis Scott Key’s handwritten copy of The Star Spangled Banner, among many others.

A Rolling National Archives

Billed as a “rolling museum,” the “United States Freedom Train” had departed Philadelphia a year earlier. Wheeling had the honor of representing West Virginia as the 48^th state on its 31,000 mile, cross-country trek to visit all 48 contiguous states (the first train to do so). Mayor Carl G. Bachmann officially welcomed the Freedom Train when it arrived at 9 a.m., and the national director of the Freedom Train’s journey discussed the “precious and irreplaceable displays” during a special noon broadcast on WWVA Radio.

“From 10 a.m. until 10 p.m.,” The Wheeling Intelligencer predicted, “a constant stream of Valley visitors will tour the rail unit, to view the hallowed documents that set the foundation for the freedoms and rights upon which the United States was built, and to join with millions of others throughout the nation in rededicating themselves to the principles for which our forefathers fought and died.”

During that mandatory “Rededication Week,” in preparation for the Freedom Train’s arrival, Richman Brothers Men’s Clothing featured, in its store window facing Market Street, a display titled, “Story-Telling Maps of West Virginia.” The display included what was billed as the “first map to bear the name Wheeling, which is spelled ‘Whealing.’” Thirty-five other Wheeling businesses offered similar exhibits during Rededication Week, during which all “merchants, business houses, and householders in the Ohio Valley,” were urged to display the American flag.

The day prior to the Freedom Train’s arrival was deemed “Pursuit of Happiness Day,” and featured free dances with musical performances by Local 142, American Federation of Musicians, at both Wheeling Parks’ White Palace and Oglebay Park’s Pine Room. On the morning of the train’s arrival, all local schools, public and privates held assemblies to familiarize the students with the documents on-board. Classes were then dismissed early to allow the students to tour the train. Many local businesses, as well as city and county offices, closed early to enable their employees to tour the train.

In all more than 11,000 people waited in the blazing September sun to tour the Freedom Train during its twelve hour Wheeling stop. The line, said to be “four and five people thick,” extended from the Pennsylvania Depot at 12^th all the way down Water Street to the 14^th Street intersection. Members of the Pennsylvania Railroad “police force” stood guard alongside Wheeling policemen, firemen, local national guard, and a contingent of 29 U.S. Marines, sharply clad in dress blues, who kept the onlookers moving at a brisk pace. The bridges and highways leading into town were jammed with autos bringing more people from neighboring communities to see the unusual attraction.

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Selling America to Americans

The idea for the Freedom Train arose in the early years of the Cold War, when U.S. Attorney General Thomas Clark worried that Americans had lost their WWII-patriotic edge. He recruited Paramount Pictures and the Ad Council to create a new Hollywood-style patriotic propaganda campaign to “sell America to Americans.” The group created the “American Heritage Foundation” (not to be confused with the similarly named right wing think-tank formed in 1973) and the Freedom Train was the Foundation’s brainchild. Its mission was to bring the documents of freedom (on loan from the National Archives) to all Americans, regardless of race, gender or creed. Yet the document selection, as well as the on-board interpretation struck many as having a decidedly conservative flavor.

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But the Wheeling Intelligencer bought in: “Big and little they came,” the newspaper gushed, “young and old, black and white and yellow, tiny school tots and aged, feeble men and women, farmers, miners, mechanics, white collar workers, members of religious orders, doctors, lawyers, truck drivers and housewives, flocking from all sections of the Ohio Valley to gaze briefly on the aged, yellowed papers that established, guaranteed and still preserve the freedoms of the American people…”

 

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“I Hope There Ain’t No Jim Crow on the Freedom Train”

“You can shout your anger from a steeple
You can shoot the system full of holes
You can always question ‘We the People’
You can get your answer at the polls”
-from The Freedom Train (1948) by Irving Berlin

Despite its stated mission, questions soon arose as to whether “All Aboard” would truly apply to the Freedom Train. Even though President Truman announced a desegregation policy for the train, only one document having to do with rights for African Americans – a manuscript copy of the Emancipation Proclamation – was selected to make the journey. The irony of a national “Freedom Train” making stops in southern states (including West Virginia) where Jim Crow segregation laws still kept blacks and whites “separate but equal,” did not escape the notice of poet Langston Hughes, who wrote a highly critical poem titled “Freedom Train” that expressed the concerns of black Americans across the nation. A dramatic reading of the poem was later recorded by performer and activist Paul Robeson.

Hughes wrote (in part):

“Down South in Dixie the only trains I see’s
Got a Jim-Crow car set aside for me.
I hope there ain’t no Jim Crow on the Freedom Train,
No back door entrance to the Freedom Train,
No signs FOR COLORED on the Freedom Train,
No WHITE FOLKS ONLY on the Freedom Train.

I’m gonna check up on this
Freedom Train.”

To read the full text of the poem, click here. To listen to Paul Robeson’s poignant reading, visit this site.

In its glowing report on the train’s visit, the Wheeling Intelligencer attempted to downplay the issue locally, saying, “Negroes stood in reverent silence before Lincoln’s manuscript copy of the Emancipation Proclamation…that freed them from the toils of slavery. Foreign born American citizens and sons and daughters of foreign born citizens paused before the manuscript copy of the Declaration of Independence…”

Although it did not occur in Wheeling, southern cities like Memphis and Birmingham threatened to segregate black and white visitors when the train stopped. Facing protests, the American Heritage Foundation canceled the scheduled Freedom Train stops for those cities.

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Documenting the Document Train

Amid the throng along the Wheeling Wharf that late summer day was a young man named John J. “J.J.” Young.

Wheeling’s prolific and legendary train photographer, his trusty camera in hand, documented the unique visit for posterity. In July 2016, the Ohio County Public Library featured an exhibit on the Freedom Train’s Wheeling visit.

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Epilogue: The Spirit of 1976

More of a “Rolling Smithsonian” than a “Rolling Archive” like its predecessor, a second Freedom Train (actually comprised of several different steam and diesel engines) traversed the country in celebration of the Bicentennial in 1975-1976. Carrying 500 artifacts, including everything from a moon rock to Martin Luther King Jr.’s pulpit and Dorothy’s dress from the Wizard of Oz, the “American Freedom Train” visited Huntington and Charleston, but not Wheeling.

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Making a Freedom Train

A scale model Alco PA-1 diesel locomotive is transformed into the Freedom Train locomotive. Note: the eagle heralds were removed early on when they reminded people of Nazi symbols. They were reinstalled before the train reached Wheeling.

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In addition to the locomotive, the Freedom Train was comprised of three sleeper cars provided by the Pullman Company and three observation cars provided by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Pullman also supplied the conductor as well as three porters to cater to the Marines and other staff on board. The observation cars carried the archival treasures, which the Marines both guarded and interpreted for the 3.5 million national visitors. According to reports, the Marines set a brisk pace, with each visitor allowed less than three seconds eyeball-time per document.