A Transportation Centennial

Talking Transportation

In the history of American transportation, there is one crucial intersection between the railroads and civil rights: the formation, exactly 100 years ago this week in August OF 1925, of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car porters by A. Phillip Randolph. This was the first predominantly African-American labor union in the US.

PULLMAN CARS

It was in 1862 that George Pullman launched the first deluxe railroad sleeping cars bearing his name. They were an instant hit, offering middle and upper-class passengers the comforts of home while on the rails.

All of the Pullman Car conductors were white, but the porters (who tended to the passengers) were black. Many of them were former slaves. Pullman theorized they would be used to the subservient roles of lugging baggage, making up the sleeping berths and serving the white passengers’ every whim.

After they retired for the night, passengers could place their shoes in a small compartment accessible from the corridor where the porters would retrieve and shine them while passengers slept.

LONG HOURS, LOW PAY

Pullman’s porters had to be on call 20 hours a day, serving passengers and tending to boardings at intermediate stations.

Porters worked 400 hours per month, with their time off being uncompensated. They had to pay for their own uniforms, meals and shoe shine kits. Between runs, even away from home, they paid for their own lodging. The hours they spent before and after each trip preparing and cleaning the car were also unpaid… much like some present day flight attendants.

In 1926, the average porter earned $72 a month in wages and got about $58 a month in tips. In contrast, Pullman’s white conductors (who had a union) earned $150 for a 240 hour month, plus benefits and a pension.

Still, Pullman’s black porters made a good income compared to other black workers, allowing many to enter the middle class in railroad hub cities like Chicago and St. Louis.

As one historian put it, a Pullman porter had the best job in his community and the worst job on the train. There was no room for promotion. Passengers often referred to Pullman porters by demeaning names like “boy”, or “George”, applying the first name of the Pullman cars’ owner.

UNIONIZATION

In 1925, A. Phillip Randolph started organizing The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters under the rallying cry “Fight or be slaves”. It took a decade of court battles and the threat of a national strike before the union was recognized in 1937, giving porters a big wage hike and a 240 hour per month work schedule.

Randolph and others in the Brotherhood went on to become leaders of the civil rights movement. One porter, Edgar D. Nixon, helped organize the Montgomery Alabama bus boycott after Rosa Parks’ arrest in 1955.  

Among other famous Pullman porters were future US Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, activist Malcolm X and photographer Gordon Parks.

By the 1950’s, train service was in decline and in 1959 Pullman closed up its sleeping car business. Some porters went on to work with the legacy railroads and a few were still around when Amtrak took over.

In 1981, when the Pullman company delivered its last Superliner sleeping car, it was named after George Pullman. Years later, after Randolph had passed away, another Amtrak sleeping car was named in his honor.