Brotherhood+of+Sleeping+Car+Porters

During the 1920’s, there were few jobs regarded in the same prestige by the African American community as that of a sleeping car porter. This vocation promised steady pay and the chance to venture across the nation. Despite these pros, porters had very little income, half of which had to be spent on basic life necessities. Nearly all of their pay came from tips. A concerted effort was made to change this when A. Philip Randolph, a black labor-rights activist, organized the first African American trade union. Called the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, this union sought to regulate the income and living conditions of the 20,224 porters. George Pullman, who presided over the Pullman Company that employed the porters, was firmly opposed to the union because of the equality he would be forced to bestow upon his employees. Both groups lobbied for the support of the middle-class African American community of Chicago, where the Pullman Company was based. After gradually winning the support of the middle-class, which was skeptic of the importance of labor unions, Randolph and his Brotherhood spent the next 12 years from its inception gaining public favor. Finally on August 25, 1937, the Brotherhood was recognized as the legitimate union of the Pullman Porters. There was a considerable amount of hardship that had to be endured along the way, as the Pullman Company threatened Randolph and his fellow porters with threats of job loss. The longevity and livelihood of the Brotherhood would not have been conceivable without a federal law passed by Congress that ensured all unions would have the right to exist without interference from their employers. The union also received fundamental help from the American Federation of Labor, which had excluded black workers until it pledged to support to the Brotherhood. [] []

The Rise and Fall of Jim Crowe Pullman Porter Museum