Winner • Herbert H. Lehman Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in New York History Winner • GANYC Apple Award for Outstanding Book Writing (Nonfiction) Finalist • Brendan Gill Prize (Municipal Art Society of New York) Open Letters Review • 10 Best Biographies of 2019 The Bowery Boys Podcast • 10 Favorite Books of 2019 A long-overdue biography of the head of Grand Central Terminal’s Red Caps, who flourished in the cultural nexus of Harlem and American railroads. In a feat of remarkable research and timely reclamation, Eric K. Washington uncovers the nearly forgotten life of James H. Williams (1878–1948), the chief porter of Grand Central Terminal’s Red Caps―a multitude of Harlem-based black men whom he organized into the essential labor force of America’s most august railroad station. Washington reveals that despite the highly racialized and often exploitative nature of the work, the Red Cap was a highly coveted job for college-bound black men determined to join New York’s bourgeoning middle class. Examining the deeply intertwined subjects of class, labor, and African American history, Washington chronicles Williams’s life, showing how the enterprising son of freed slaves successfully navigated the segregated world of the northern metropolis, and in so doing ultimately achieved financial and social influence. With this biography, Williams must now be considered, along with Cornelius Vanderbilt and Jacqueline Onassis, one of the great heroes of Grand Central’s storied past. 80 photographs "The subject of this tremendously involving book, James Williams, the chief porter for the "Red Caps" of Grand Central Station, is less well-known than virtually any figure on this list [of favorite biographies], but . . . Washington does a masterful job of showing how important - and fascinating - his life and times were." - Open Letters Review , 10 Best Biographies of 2019 "[T]he strength of Boss of the Grips is Washington's absolute command of the broader story surrounding Williams, the lives of urban African-Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This is an indispensable story of the black experience and one that seldom gets noticed in other New York City history books on this period." - The Bowery Boys Podcast, 10 Favorite Books of 2019 "An at once inspiring and cautionary new social history of Harlem and beyond in the first half of the 20th century. Mr. Washington, an independent historian, reanimates a lost world of strivers who created a protean civic, artistic and commercial society to subvert the Jim Crow bias still resilient in the most liberal city in America.... An illuminating chronicle of success against the odds... It's poignant to read all the stories of dogged advancement through deft maneuvering within a rigged system." - Edward Kosner, Wall Street Journal "A thoroughly researched and illuminating biography.... Washington gives a palpable sense of the myriad obstacles blacks faced.... An absorbing, fresh perspective on black history." - Kirkus Reviews [starred review] "In this illuminating debut biography, historian Washington celebrates a black New Yorker who won authority and influence in a segregated economy.... He paints a vivid portrait of the bustling golden age of train travel, and makes Williams a fitting exemplar of Harlem's ambitious black middle class... The result is a rich, stirring social history of African-Americans' struggle to succeed in an unfair system." - Publishers Weekly Eric K. Washington is an independent historian who has held fellowships at Columbia University and the CUNY Leon Levy Center for Biography, as well as the MFAH Dora Maar House in Ménerbes, France. He lives in New York. Learn more about Eric's news and upcoming events at www.ekwashington.com .