May 07, 2020 - Sale 2534

Sale 2534 - Lot 329

Unsold
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(MILITARY--WORLD WAR ONE.) "Farewell to the Colored Liberty Fellows" event held for departing troops. Photograph, 8 x 10 inches, on original plain 12 x 14-inch plain mount; nice crisp image, with minor wear to mount. [Bluefield, WV, circa 1917?]

Additional Details

14 men stand on a porch along with a small girl and a dog, under a sign reading "Colored Department, N.&W. R.R. Y.M.C.A, a Farewell to the Colored Liberty Fellows by the Y.M.C.A., Oct. 28, 3:30 p.m." This was apparently a branch of the Y.M.C.A. formed for African-American workers on the Norfolk & Western Railroad. They stand in front of the Y.M.C.A.'s Bluefield, WV building at 432 Scott Street, where they were based from at least 1913 to 1921.