Earleen (Johnson) Freeman was born in Boston, Mass., the elder daughter of Mary Johnson Ogletree and Earl Bell. She dropped out of high school and in 1966 married Duane Freeman, a teacher thirty years her senior; he died in 1973. In 1977, after working as a waitress, an elevator operator, and a toll collector, Freeman was hired by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority as a trolley driver, the first women and the first black woman in any transportation system on the eastern seaboard. While working in what was predominantly a white, Irish-Catholic, and all-male world, Freeman was subjected to repeated harassment and was fired in 1984.
From the description of Papers, 1977-1991 (inclusive). (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 232008444
