Family Quarters for Silver Employees, Each House Accommodates 48 Families, Red Tank Canal Zone

Housing was segregated and decidedly unequal since “colored” laborers (Panamanians, African American and clacks from the Caribbean, East Indians, and Chinese) lived in unscreened quarters along unpaved, rutted roads. Over time, some improvements were made in workers’ housing, notably for African Americans who constituted a special category of “silver” employees.