
A sleeping car porter employeed by the Pullman Company at Union Station in Chicago, Illinois, 1943. United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division, digital ID fsa.8d24965.
The first great action of workers across the U.S., focused in the big cities, especially Los Angeles and New York, the movement exploded in 1882 with a massive demonstration in New York. Workers taking unpaid leave marched through the streets, ten thousand strong, to demonstrate the power of labor. Scandals and the undiminished power of corporations have slowly eaten away support for the unions, which came to me as a child riding the trains on family vacations. There I saw for the first time in my young life—and a first for many years to come—proud African American men wearing the handsome uniforms (which they had to pay for themselves) as members of the Union of Sleeping Car Porters.
The first union run by African American men, it started in 1920, representing the interests of 18,000 railroad workers across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Founded by A. Philip Randolf, a Socialist who had worked for years on a Pullman Sleeping car, turning down berths and attending to passenger needs, he and his colleagues later became important actors in the Civil Rights Movement.
Their first great foe was the Pullman Company and its head, George Pullman, an engineer and industrialist who realized the potential of designing comfortable, clean sleeping cars to replace the dirty and cramped older version. His company in Chicago became the great foe of the Union which was demanding fair wages, greater than the current 27 cents an hour, and better working conditions for the men attending to the needs of passengers on the new sleeping cars with their comfortable pull-down berths. His power was recognized at the time by white passengers who called all the porters “George.”
Between 1920 and 1930, the Pullman Company was the largest single employer of African American men in this country. Their demands for higher pay and better conditions were not met, largely due to Pullman’s opposition (his luxurious house in Washington D.C. is now the Soviet Embassy). Although the company promised to provide an opportunity for its employees to enjoy a middle-class lifestyle, they were still dependent on tips from white passengers, required to travel 11,000 miles on the railroad or 400 hours a week.
In 1925, Randolf organized a strike of sleeping car porters, calling to his followers “to fight or be a slave” and insisting, “We are not a mob. We are the advance guard of a massive moral revolution.”
Passenger travel on trains was greatly reduced, beginning in the 1950’s as the airline industry tightened it grasp on American consumers and speed became our only goal. At the same time, the unions shriveled, losing public support due to news of internal scandals and the staunch opposition of corporate America.
Whether we were part of the mob screaming, “Burn him! Burn him!” here Friday evening, or enjoying the holiday as a last chance to go to the beach, it’s incumbent upon us to remember the history. Now’s a time for revitalization of the union movement here as our Democratic candidate for the presidency, Kamala Harris, seems at least open to dialogue, and as Starbucks fights off the unionization of its poorly paid workers.
Workers here have few rights in the eyes of employers unless they organize, but as always, it will be a long and bitterly opposed fight.
My mother and 3 daughters took many an overnight train trip during WWII when our father went to war. The porters were the greatest comfort imaginable. I have the very best of memories of their making up our beds at night, helping us get settled and looking for ways to comfort us. They were very special. My mother was motion sick on many of those trips and they were there to see to our every need.
Thanks for this column. I did not know the history of their struggle.