BLACK FROM THE PAST
Train Is A Comin’ – Oh Yes!
If there is a great woman beside every great man, then you know there were a lot of great sisters propelling the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP). They were fighting for their men as the men fought for their manhood.
This Train Don’t Pull No Jokers
Being a porter for the Pullman Company’s luxury train system was a welcome change from sharecropping and became the most common occupation for black men in the U.S. and Canada in the early 1900s. Porter uniforms drew admiration in the black community but got no respect from white patrons.
Their names might be John, Jacob, or Stanley, but passengers called them George. Why George? They were nicknamed after George Pullman, the company’s founder. The label was a way to overlook them as people and use them as commodities.
Room for Plenty More
The BSCP was a labor union organized in 1925 by A. Philip Randolph to combat the abuses suffered by porters. It became the first black labor union to receive a charter from the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The union pushed for higher pay, job security, and the right to wear name tags. The BSCP negotiated a contract with the Pullman Company in 1937.
In 1917, the Order of Sleeping Car Porters (OSCP) of Canada was the first black railway union in North America. In 1942, they merged with the BSCP as it expanded into Canada. By 1945 their combined efforts led to a collective bargaining contract with the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Get on board
As with future civil rights organizations, the Brotherhood would have been powerless without the sisterhood of women like Rosina Corrothers-Tucker and Frances Albrier in the U.S., along with Laura Elizabeth Gilberry and Helen Williams-Bailey in Canada. The male porters would often be away from home for weeks at a time and were threatened with job loss if they complained about work conditions. Many of the wives and other female family members formed the Ladies’ Auxiliary of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. They raised funds, recruited members, and spoke out in ways that the porters couldn’t. The sisters were fully on board with the Brotherhood to bring the rail companies to the bargaining table.
