As a convict, Henry was forced into labor on the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Railroad. It killed him. “The standard line is that the John Henry song is about the tenacity and hard work and plight of ...

Yes, John Henry was a black man who worked on railroads. But, no, he did not die after a freak contest competing with a steam-driving machine as legend holds. Greenwich-based photographer Clifford ...