Arcola-Philpott

In August of 1944,the Los Angeles Railway hired Arcola as its first African-American

"motormanette."This was the term given to women who drove the railway cars.Not was she the first motormanette,Arcola was the first African-American service driver the railway hired.She rode the railways on the "F" line from 116th South Vermont Avenue to Union Station terminal.Arcola of Chicago was a graduate of Loyola University with a degree in social science.She was an accomplish pianist and spoke several languages.After her stint in Los Angeles as a railway driver she worked in welfare and then took a job in research at the University of Chicago.Between 1940  and 1944,the African-American population in Los Angeles more than doubled.President Roosevelt issued the wartime Executive Order 88o2 prohibiting employment discrimination of workers based on race.Railway workers in Philadelphia were strugging and decided to go on strike to gain momentum in the hiring practice of motormen.The president ordered the men back  to work,threating the draft if they did not cooperate.With the help of Rev.Clayton Russell and the Los Angeles Negro Victory Comitee,the AFI-CIO,the NAACP,and the Fair Employment Victory Employment Practices Comission,African-American streetcar motormen were on the rise.Only weeks after Arcola was hired,LA Railway hired additional African-American motormen:Louis S.Bernard,Hoyt A.Brown,Percy B.Hill,Roosevelt Mills,Butler James Mitchell,W.B.Jones, E.M. Morris,W.S.A.Weary and James Womack.The streetcar railway company was sold to the L.A. Transit Lines Company,making way for the increasing number of bus lines in 1945.Arcola returned to Chicago and worked as a license nurse,a journalist for the Pittsburgh Courier at the Museum of Science and Industry.She passed away on May 14,1991.