John Wesley Whitaker

Born: November 9, 1921
Died: February 27, 2002

Leadership means dedication, courage and commitment. Railroad pioneer John W. Whitaker exemplified such leadership as he rose from shoveling coal in locomotives to managing train operations in Georgia. Whitaker, the Central of Georgia's first African-American locomotive engineer, spent much of his career seeking equal opportunities for African-American rail workers.

He did not wait long to begin transcending the race barrier. During World War II, Whitaker was a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, America's first black military pilots. After the war, he worked as a locomotive fireman for Norfolk Southern predecessor Central of Georgia. Here, Whitaker and other African-American railroaders founded the International Brotherhood of Railroad Employees, a union that challenged workplace discrimination. Whitaker served as their second president. The union's efforts helped pave the way for the revolutionary 1954 decision in "Brown vs. Board of Education," which declared segregation unconstitutional.

In addition to being the Central of Georgia's first black locomotive engineer, Whitaker was later named Southern Railway's road foreman of engines, becoming the railway's first African-American transportation officer.

His unrelenting pursuit for equal opportunities in the railroad industry was honored in October 2001 when the NS intermodal facility in Austell, Ga., was named for him. "We knew we were doing the right thing," said Whitaker. "We had to keep moving forward. We were trying to help ourselves and our families and paving the way for others. Our faith in ourselves and our faith in the Lord kept us going."