092323 Way Black History Fact - The Black Origins of Popular Card Games

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Our Way Black History Fact highlights the African-American roots of Bid Whist, Bridge, and Spades…the classic card games!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, signed for the Way Black History fact Today's
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Today's reading comes from Fox Valley Labor News, and we

(00:22):
are talking about the origins of spades. All right. The
binding threads of the card game bin whist. Believe that's
how I say this, hard Wist, Bidwist, That's what okay?
Bidwist are also the threads that bind the lives of
African Americans to Chicago labor history in the nation's economic advancement.
A detailed look into the creation of bid Wist, the

(00:44):
rich tradition of African American history, as well as the
card games rules, variations, and strategies, can be found in
a recently published book, The Evolution of Bidwist one hundred
and fifty years in the growth of an African American tradition.
The game is one of the most commonly played card
games at any USA casino and close resembles Bridge or Spades.
After researching the origins and history of Bidwist. Naperville resident

(01:05):
Ron Allen put everything together and published his book in
summer twenty fourteen. Along the way, he discovered the African
American roots of this card game run deep and strong
and are echoed today. At a recent Naperville Township Democrats
organization meeting and in honor of Black History Month, Allan
discussed with members of the ties between Bidwist and African
American history. Much of Allen's research focused on the Pullman

(01:26):
Porters and other notable African Americans. Engineer and industrialist George
Pullman designed and manufactured the Pullman sleeping car and founded
the Pullman Company town near Chicago for the workers who
manufactured it. His Pullman Company also hired freed African American
men to staff the Pullman cars, who became known and

(01:46):
widely respected as Pullman porters, pulling sorry providing elite service.
The Pullman porters could travel for free or at huge
discounts to any cities along the route of the railroad.
Allan explained this mobility enabled the Pullman porters to carry
the game of bid Wist from the South to the
rest of the country. Because of their status as working
African Americans who also earned a decent wage enough to

(02:08):
put them into the middle class. The pullman porters established
themselves as an important part of Black history and were
admired by many. In nineteen twenty five, under the leadership
of A. Philip Randolph, workers formed the Brotherhood of Sleeping
Car Porters. It was the first labor organization led by
African Americans to receive a charter in the American Federation
of Labor. The union went on to face one of

(02:29):
the largest labor disputes in Chicago history. While growing up
on the West Side of Chicago, Allen recalled playing Bidwist
with neighborhood friends. Bidwist took me off the streets when
there was a growing increase in gangs in the neighborhood.
He said, was started as a card game in the
eighteen sixties played by slaves in the South, has transitioned

(02:51):
into a rich history of diversity and pride for those
who brought the game to others across the country. Those
pollman porters who carried the game to cities along the
railroad also became predominant figures in African American history, becoming
successful business owners, elected officials, doctors, lawyers and military leaders.
Diversity is a natural part of human evolution and a

(03:12):
gift from our creator. Nature should be our guideline for
diversity because it accomplishes beauty and harmony with the use
of all the colors of the rainbow, Allen said, and
then I'll read this from blackamericaweb dot com. The card
game of Wist has been said to originate in Turkey
and was brought to the States during slavery, although the
Encyclopedia Britannica originates the game of Wist to start in

(03:35):
Europe in fifteen twenty nine as the game of Trump.
Black slaves weren't allowed to read or write, but slave
owners believe that a game of Wist could help them
count the cotton barrels and produce, so they were allowed
to play as a game of alve so did the name.
Thus the birth of Bidwist, Spades and bridge Oh Mob.
To brother A Philip Randolph, believe, why you know, I

(03:56):
like that