Pullman Porters & the History of the Black Working Class

In the early 20th century, career options for Black workers were limited, and the jobs often came with low pay and poor conditions. Ironically, because they were concentrated in certain jobs, Black workers sometimes monopolized those jobs and had collective power to demand better conditions and higher pay. The Pullman Company, founded in 1862, hired only Black men to serve as porters on Pullman cars, since George M. Pullman thought that formerly enslaved men would know how to be good, invisible servants and that they would work for low wages. In 1925, the Pullman Porters formed their own union, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, with A. Philip Randolph serving as president. After years of struggle, in 1935, the Pullman Company finally recognized the union, and it was granted a charter by the American Federation of Labor (AFL), making the Brotherhood the first Black union it accepted.

Joining me in this episode to help us learn about the Black working class is historian Dr. Blair L. M. Kelley, the Joel R. Williamson Distinguished Professor of Southern Studies at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the incoming director of the Center for the Study of the American South and author of Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Pullman Porter Blues,” music and lyrics by Clifford Ulrich and Burton Hamilton; performed by Clarence Williams on September 30, 1921; the recording is in the public domain.The episode image is: “J.W. Mays, Pullman car porter,” photographed by C.M. Bell, 1894; the photograph is in the public domain and available via the Library of Congress.

Additional Sources:

• “George Pullman: His Impact on the Railroad Industry, Labor, and American Life in the Nineteenth Century,” by Rosanne Lichatin,” History Resources, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
• “The Rise and Fall of the Sleeping Car King,” by Jack Kelly, Smithsonian Magazine, January 11, 2019.
• “The Pullman Strike, by Richard Schneirov, Northern Illinois University Digital Library.
• “Pullman Porters,” History.com, Originally published February 11, 2019, and updated October 8, 2021.
• “The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters,” by Brittany Hutchinson, Chicago History Museum.
• “Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (1925-1978),” by Daren Salter, BlackPast, November 24, 2007.
• “A. Philip Randolph Was Once “the Most Dangerous Negro in America,” by Peter Dreier, Jacobin, January 31, 2023.

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