PASSING OF THE NEGRO ROUSTABOUT
River steamboat companies hire white men on dock.

New Orleans, La.- The passing of the Negro as a "roustabout," marking an epoch in steamboating on the Mississippi, was witnessed by a large crowd of people, who recently saw 69 white men, sent here from western and northern cities, go to work at the steamboat landing in place of the colored men. For years the steamboat men have suffered from the strikes of Negro "rousters," who have been in the habit of waiting until a steamboat was loaded and ready to leave and then refusing to ship unless their wages were raised. The steamboat interests recently decided to try the experiment of doing away with Negro labor and hiring white men and the first contingent went to work. A crowd of Negroes appeared on the levee, but no attempt to molest the strangers was made. Precautions have been taken to send police to the river front in case of violence.
Cleveland Journal, 02, no. 32, 10/22/1904, p. 1. Reproduced in American Memory (search Roustabout).