Fab Fridays Lunch & Learn Lectures at OLLI: The RAIL Project: Incarcerated Labor Remembered, with Dan Pierce

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UNC Asheville will host author Daniel S. Pierce for his discussion T he RAIL Project: Incarcerated Labor Remembered on Friday, March 26 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. as part of its Fab Fridays Lunch & Learn.

Between 1877 and 1880 an astonishing engineering and construction effort brought the railroad “up the mountain” from Old Fort to Swannanoa and Asheville, opening up WNC to the rest of the state and beyond. It is widely considered one of the greatest human accomplishments in WNC history. The names of engineers, legislators and financiers involved are well known. Little regard was given to the hundreds of unnamed laborers who actually built the railroad across the Blue Ridge Escarpment. At least 95 percent were inmates from the North Carolina State Penitentiary. Approximately 98 percent of those inmates were African American, the majority of whom were unjustly imprisoned in these early years of Jim Crow laws. At least 139 died due to illness or injury.

To honor the memory of these unsung laborers, the RAIL (Railroad Incarcerated Laborer) Memorial Project was created in July 2020 to share the true story behind this marvelous human endeavor. Daniel S. Pierce is the author of six books, most recently Tarheel Lightnin’, about how North Carolina’s became the moonshine capital of the world. He serves as Interdisciplinary Distinguished Professor of the Mountain South, and resident professional hillbilly at UNC Asheville where he teaches courses on the South, Appalachia, North Carolina, and the National Parks.

Register at this link. Once you have registered, you will receive a link to join.