" Sounding defensive, Emily justified, “Willie went to get a job at the Pullman Company, expecting to follow in his father’s footsteps as a coal man. He was told he was in the wrong office and directed to a different department. There he was given a job as a conductor, which pays three times as much as his father makes. They had mistaken him for being White.” She shrugged. “He’s passing? "

― Laila Ibrahim , Golden Poppies (Freedman/Johnson, #3)