 Worcester Teamster Rides into Area Schools During Black History Month
Local 170, Worcester, Massachusetts
Excerpted from Teamster Magazine, April/May 2000
When Massachusetts area schools are looking for a fun and informative way to promote Black History Month, they can call in the cavalry. Actually, they can call in Local 170 member Michael Washington.
Washington and Local 170 Secretary Treasurer Dick Foley created an educational program on the Buffalo Soldiers. Largely ignored by history books, the Buffalo Soldiers was the name of the 200,000 black soldiers.
After seeing a presentation on the Buffalo Soldiers at last year's Teamsters National Black Caucus convention, Washington and Local 170 spent the next six months preparing an educational program. They have already scheduled visits at 22 Worcester area schools. The schools are filming the presentation and plan to include the program in next year's curriculum.
Washington dresses in a blue uniform of the post-Civil War era. He mounts a horse and rides up to students and begins his presentation.
"I thought, 'My God, why weren't we ever taught about this,'" Washington told the Worcester Telegram and Gazette. "This should be taught not as black history, but as American history."
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