The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was the first Black labor organization to be accepted as part of the American Federation of Labor. (The AF of L was formed in 1886 and was one of the first federations of labor groups in the United States.)
When we read about railroads and “days gone by,” the stories tend to focus on the romance of traveling by rail, or the struggle of laying track throughout the western United States. Rarely do we hear about the day-to-day conditions of those who worked for the passenger railroads. The story of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters is an important chapter of that story, and it tells of labor and color and class unrest.
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Pullman Palace Car Company
George M. Pullman began the Pullman Palace Car Company in 1867. The Civil War ended, and people were beginning to travel by train for business and for pleasure. Pullman felt that customers would pay a premium for luxury service and better sleeping accommodations.
A new workforce also was available with the end of the Civil War. Pullman envisioned that former slaves would be perfect as porters (servants) on a luxury railroad. White men would work as conductors, but Black men were assigned to be porters.
For a time, the situation seemed a decent plan. Initially, Black men were delighted to find regular employment. The work was hard, and the pay was low, but it was a start. Some men used their income to pay for education or to put a down payment on a home. For many, it was their first taste of middle class living.
Traveling the Country
Another benefit to the job was seeing the country. As the porters traveled throughout the United States, they took with them news of other areas as well as music and songs that were popular elsewhere.
Eventually this led to the Great Migration with more Blacks leaving the South and settling in other parts of the country for better job opportunities. Some even became homesteaders. (See the article about film director and homesteader Oscar Micheaux.)
Downside as Well
In addition to the low salaries, the porters had to pay for their own supplies like shoe polish and cleaning equipment. Porters were also expected to be subservient to all the white travelers. They were no longer slaves but there were many similarities in the work.
In a total depersonalization of porters as people, customers were encouraged to refer to each porter as “George,” after the founder of the company.
Paternalism
During the 19th century, large textile factories and mining communities set the precedent of operating their own towns. They provided housing for their workers, and supplies were available at a company store where the prices weren’t necessarily cheap.
George Pullman followed this pattern for his company base. He built the town of Pullman just outside Chicago. Housing was provided, and workers were expected to patronize the company store.
Pullman realized that if he was providing a town for his white workers, he needed to do something for his maids and porters as well. He could not force integration in the town (nor would he have been inclined to), so George Pullman donated to black churches and other organizations in the Chicago area where the company was based. This increased worker loyalty. And eventually made it harder to build union support for the Brotherhood.
Inequalities Rankled
But the inequities of the working conditions continued to rankle many of the porters and maids. Porters were paid about one-third of the monthly salary earned by white conductors, and their work months were about 400 hours vs. 250 hours for conductors. In addition, the porters were expected to absorb the costs for their needed supplies as well as for food and accommodation while on the road.
The company justified the different pay scale by saying that porters could earn tips, but as workers today know, tips are not a dependable income.
Agitating for Change
Porters in the New York area were the first to push for change. But they knew that Pullman—like other big employers—hired undercover detectives to serve as union-busters.
Since the company was headquartered in Chicago, the agitators knew they had to spread the word carefully. Many of the porters were just glad to have a steady job, and Pullman’s donations to Black causes near Chicago meant that not everyone wanted to challenge the status quo. Ironically, the techniques pioneered by the women suffragists, many of them Black women, were helpful to the Brotherhood.
In 1913, the women of Illinois–Black and white–gained state suffrage rights. With that goal accomplished, some took their experience to help fight for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and full citizenship for Black men.
Getting Around the Spies
To avoid detection by the detectives, the Brotherhood organizers knew they needed a leader who could not be brought down from within the company. With that in mind, they selected a non-Pullman executive to lead the organization.
Asa Philip Randolph was a well-connected Harlem business owner who edited a monthly magazine, The Messenger. He was a strong leader and could operate without fear of reprisal since he had nothing to do with the Pullman Company. He was fully committed to the fact that porters should be able to negotiate their own economic contract and that “the time had passed when a grown Black man should beg a grown white man for anything.”
Railway Labor Act
After Randolph took the helm in 1925, it took ten more years’ to win concessions for the porters. As important as their cause was, the Depression of the 1930s added to complexity of the negotiations. It was no time to walk off a job.
Finally, federal changes in the Railway Labor Act in 1934 meant that in 1935, the Brotherhood won certification to represent the porters. At that time, the American Federation of Labor fully recognized the all-Black organization.
Two years later the Brotherhood signed its first collective bargaining agreement with the Pullman Company; they gained pay increases, a shorter work week, and the right to overtime pay. Ultimately, the leadership and skills gained by members who were part of the Brotherhood went on to be used in organizing the U.S. civil rights movement. But there was nothing easy about it.
For more information, read about Septima Clark, who started citizenship schools to help with voting, Worcy Crawford who drove the Black community in Birmingham at a time when no other bus company would, and John Lewis, who was part of the civil rights movement from the original march on Selma until his recent death while serving in Congress.
An excellent summary of the Brotherhood’s history. Thanks for a resource I can point out to our guests at Illinois Railway Museum.
After passage of equal opportunity opportunity laws in the 1960s Pullman porters sued that they were doing a Pullman conductor’s paperwork as porter-in-charge but were paid much less. That wasn’t quite true as porters-in-charge were allowed only where there was a single Pullman car on the train. If there were two there had to be a conductor who also had supervisory responsibilities. A single car didn’t generate enough fares to pay two salaries. Since Pullman cars were being discontinued as people switched to the airlines, there were few if any opportunities for promotion. In 1968 Pullman discontinued all US operations but a shell of the company remained until the litigation was completed. Many former porters found employment with the individual railroads and later Amtrak. I rode with a former porter from Chicago to New York in 1975 on Amtrak.
Thank you, Alex, that’s a very helpful update… how things change.