The Western North Carolina Historical Association’s (WNCHA) 2021 Outstanding Achievement Award will be presented to The Railroad and Incarcerated Laborer (RAIL) Memorial Project for their work telling the story and memorializing the work and sacrifice of the thousands of incarcerated laborers who were forced to build the railroad through our region under brutal conditions. The ceremony will be held on Sunday, June 26 at 3:00pm in the Manheimer Room at UNC-Asheville’s Reuter Center. The event will also be live-streamed.
“We are excited by the many worthy projects and committed individuals who are working together to help us recognize and bring to light the ‘whole truth’ about the history of our region. We have chosen The RAIL Project for the 2021 Outstanding Achievement Award because we particularly value the coalition of historians, researchers, community leaders, and musicians who collaborated to tell the story and memorialize the work and sacrifice of the 3,000 incarcerated laborers who built the railroad from Old Fort to Swannanoa,” said Catherine Frank, Chair of the Awards Committee. “The Memorial, located at Andrews Geyser, is one part of an ongoing effort to understand, uncover and share the complete story of the creation of the railroad that transformed our region at the cost of great human sacrifice.”
According to The RAIL Project website, “The construction of the Mountain Division of the Western North Carolina Railroad is widely considered one of the greatest human accomplishments in regards to both engineering and construction ever undertaken. Many people are aware that the railroad provided the first dependable access to and from much of Western North Carolina for the rest of the state as well as much of the nation. However, most people are unaware that at least 95% of the labor which built the railroad across the Blue Ridge Escarpment was completed by inmates from the North Carolina State Penitentiary and approximately 98% of those inmates were African-American men, the majority of whom were unjustly imprisoned. The RAIL Project was created to share the true story behind this human endeavor.”
In 2021, thanks to the generosity of donors from across the state, the group erected a memorial to honor the memory of those who labored and died on the mountain. In 2022, the group is working to identify potential grave sites on the mountain and erect informational panels about the people who constructed the railroad. To learn more or donate to the project, visit www.therailproject.org.
Grace, Support, Love.
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