The Card Game Bid Whist in Black History and Culture

Black in Boston and Beyond

In this episode, Dr. Hettie V. Williams is in conversation with Lamont Jones. Williams in the current director of the Trotter Institute for the Study of Black Culture at UMass Boston and Jones is a boxing lawyer and bid whist enthusiast. Jones has used the game to understand strategy, leadership, and argues it helps us to appreciate African American culture more broadly. He is also the author of the new book The Gist of Bid Whist: The Culturally-Rich Game from Black America published by Clyde Hill Publishing. This conversation first begins with a discussion of the historical roots of Bid Whist in the African American experience through a discussion of the Pullman Porters who played an integral role as they “crisscrossed the nation” sharing the game on the trains they worked on through the Great Migration and Civil Rights Era. He further argues that the game of Bid Whist is a more strategic game than chess and as complex as any other major card game played today.