Today in labor history: Streetcar strike births po’ boy sandwich

Some 1,100 streetcar workers strike in New Orleans on July 1, 1929, spurring the creation of the po’ boy sandwich by local sandwich shop owners and one-time streetcar men. “Whenever we saw one of the striking men coming,” Bennie Martin later recalled, “one of us would say, ‘Here comes another poor boy.'” Martin and his brother Clovis fed any striker who showed up.

Reposted from Union Communication Services, Inc.

Photo: Shrimp po’boy from Crabby Jack’s Rastaurant in New Orleans, La. (Public Domain/Jason Perlow)