From Slavery to Portery: The Legacy of the Pullman Porters
The untold story of the Pullman Porters and their impact on American society
Civil Hospitality
It was mid-1860s and the dust was still settling from the wreckage of the American Civil War. Slavery was no longer on the social menu, but the American people could still feel the bitter aftertaste in their psychological palate. The country was at yet another historical crossroads: she could either atone for her sins and begin the healing process for her long-oppressed guests of African descent or she could freshen the air of the putrid smell of the gas she had passed, so that the majority of her guests could continue to enjoy their stay undisturbed.
This decision is a no-brainer. However, American history has long been a stubborn advocate for the status quo. This story is no exception: the story of how corporate America exploited the predominating social mores of slavery in order to build a multimillion dollar company at the expense of Black bodies. Indeed, this is about the Pullman Porters and the laborious lifestyle that they led for the sake of political and socioeconomic development of a rising Black middle class in America.
The Perfect Match
George Mortimer Pullman was an American engineer and businessman with a seemingly innocent vision for interstate railway transportation. Pullman believed that comfort was paramount for long-distance commutes and that there should be dedicated personnel on duty to provide for the precarious needs of passengers at all hours of the day: a “hotel on wheels”. Thus, the sleeping car was born in the 1830s and popularized in 1865 by the Pullman Company with its luxurious Pullman sleeping car line. The sleeping car was a railway passenger car that was designed primarily for nighttime travel, with the capacity to accommodate each passenger in a bed of some sort.
Pullman understood early on that his service demanded a particular kind of individual. In order to provide first-class service to his passengers, he felt that he needed humble, industrious, and desperate workers, who would serve unconditionally at the beck and call of passengers. Enter: recently emancipated slaves.
Following the abolition of slavery, there were not many businesses that were willing to employ Black workers. Pullman knew that this demographic would be scrambling for any line of work that was available to them. He also knew that former slaves would have the “proper” psychological makeup to endure poor working conditions and reduced pay, all while donning a smile for good measure. These new workers were known collectively as Pullman Porters.
Working Conditions
Pullman Porters were exclusively responsible for the comfort and well-being of passengers, which was the competitive advantage of the Pullman Company. They did it all: bed dressing, dining services, telegram transmission, shoe shining, and valet services, to name a few. The role of the Pullman Porter is summarized by historian Greg LeRoy with a series of analogies:
A Pullman Porter was really kind of a glorified hotel maid and bellhop in what Pullman called a hotel on wheels. The Pullman Company just thought of the porters as a piece of equipment, just like another button on a panel — the same as a light switch or a fan switch.¹
Porters were expected to work 400 hours a month over a distance of 11,000 miles, sometimes for periods of 20 hours at a time. The average monthly wage for a porter was $78.11, supplemented by an average in tips of $58.15, which was less of a luxury than a necessity for survival. However, after paying for their own meals, lodging, uniforms, and shoe-shine supplies, their monthly wages plummeted to an average of $33.82. These earnings were much less than that brought in by their white counterparts, who were granted higher-paying roles on the sleeping car. Pullman conductors, for example, earned a minimum of $150 a month for 240 hours of work.²
Miles of Smiles
Perhaps, the most degrading aspect of the life of a Pullman was how similar it was to their former life as a slave. They were selected primarily for the servile traits that they inherited from slavery. Pullman had a knack for dark-skinned porters because it signaled to passengers that there was a stark social stratification between themselves and the porters on duty. Passengers never worried about compromising their reputation because they knew that they would never encounter porters beyond their trip aboard the sleeping car.³
Porters couldn’t escape the constant reminders of their former lives as slaves. They were often addressed as “Boy” or “George”, recalling the common practice of addressing a slave by the name of their slavemaster. Additionally, every porter was expected to carry a book of rules, which outlined Pullman’s expectations of their interactions with passengers. One particularly offensive rule dictated that porters use linen of a different color than those used by white conductors and passengers, allaying any fear that anyone other than a porter would have to use a blanket or pillowcase that was previously used by a porter.³
Because Pullman was selling a high-end service, he expected for the porters to serve with at least the semblance of joy. Consequently, porters often referred to their service ironically as “miles of smiles”.
Pullman Porter Legacy
While the routine exploitation of the Pullman Porters is well-documented, any account of their significance would be remiss if it ended there. Today, we celebrate the Pullman Porters for their social contributions, which provided the impetus for much of the Black political and socioeconomic developments of the civil rights era.
Trouble in Paradise
By the early 1900s, the Pullman Company was the largest employer of Black men in the country. However, tensions began to mount among its most prized employees. Porters were growing tired of the routine exploitation and inhumane working conditions, which had become normalized on the job. Over the years, porters made numerous attempts to unionize, but each attempt was met with a punitive response, typically a layoff. They needed a new strategy that would not jeopardize the already meager livelihood that they had.
OK Porters, Now Let’s Get In Formation
The porters reasoned that their best hope was to invite an outsider to lead unionization efforts. In 1925, the porters approached A. Philip Randolph for the job, electing him as President of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP). An experienced union organizer, Randolph was previously unconnected to the porter struggle. Nevertheless, he had always been passionate about labor organizations and he was itching to make an impact after failing woefully with previous projects.⁴
Under Randolph’s leadership, BSCP published multiple reports demanding healthier working conditions and higher compensation exposing the grave reality of porter treatment, juxtaposing it with that of other protected labor groups, including groups employed by the same Pullman Company². After 12 years of struggle, the BSCP, with strong support from the Colored Women’s Economic Council⁵, achieved an official charter in the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1937, making it the first ever union led by African Americans to accomplish such a feat.
Civil Rights Pioneers
Contrary to popular opinion, the Pullman Porters were some of the earliest pioneers of the American civil rights movement. Anyone with the least working knowledge of the civil rights movement is at least familiar with the bold statement that Rosa Parks made that fateful day that she decided to sit at the front of the bus, a section reserved exclusively for whites in those days. Less people know that when she was subsequently jailed, she made a few calls to critical figures that were quite telling. One of those people was called upon for bail, because he had foreseen this plight for Parks. That man was activist and Pullman Porter, E.D. Nixon.
When E.D. Nixon caught hold of this momentous incident, he made a few calls of his own that would ultimately change the course of history. One of the people he called was a young Reverend Father by the name of Martin Luther King, Jr. Nixon was planning the Montgomery Bus Boycott, but because he was a porter, he did not have the bandwidth to lead in execution. So, he leaned heavily on Dr. King for the historical project.
This initial series of events identified many of the core leaders that would propel the civil rights movement into full swing. In addition to the strategic leadership that they would contribute through the BSCP, the Pullman Porters stepped in when the movement was struggling financially and logistically. With improvements in pay, the porters were now in a position to donate money whenever their was a shortage and volunteer their space for meetings. These contributions would ultimately enable the many of the major events of the civil rights movement, including the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which is often considered the turning point of the movement.
The People’s Choice
Pullman Porters were the least aspirational group at the Pullman Company. However, they were the most revered working group in the African American community. They were well groomed, relatively well educated, and they were the highest earning segment of the Black working class.
Porters generally had a strong sense of social responsibility and were always willing to put their money and attention behind important causes affecting their direct family (chiefly education) and their community at large. Their frequent trips across the country also gave them access to new ideas and information about the world that they could pass on to their communities.
As a result of their enlightenment, if you look back in history, you will find that many successful African Americans were either porters or descendants of porters, including pioneering civil rights leader and union organizer E.D. Nixon, first African American Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall, and prolific film director and producer Oscar Micheaux.
Remembering the Pullman Porters
America will never fully remunerate the Pullman Porters for their contribution to social and economic development in this country. They were truly the fuel that powered railway transportation from the mid 19th century until the mid 20th century and the spark that ignited the civil rights movement. Yet, not so much as a whisper has been wasted on their legacy. This Black History Month, let’s take a moment to reflect on the impact of the Pullman Porter on the African American community and the country at large.
Supplementary Resources
- Rising from the Rails: The Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class: book by Larry Tye
- Miles of Smiles, Years of Struggle: documentary by Paul Wagner Films
- A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum founded by Lyn Hughes
- Service and Grace Amid a Class Struggle: The Story of the Pullman Porter by the Museum of the American Railroad
- An Anthology of Respect: The Pullman Porter National Historic Registry by Lyn Hughes
References
- Pullman Porters: from Servitude to Civil Rights — https://interactive.wttw.com/a/chicago-stories-pullman-porters
- The Pullman Porter | Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters | 1926 | Retrieved 14 March 2018 — https://publications.newberry.org/pullman/archive/files/4c057c714cf8431860c75a02d4b1756b.pdf
- Pullman Porters, Creating A Black Middle Class | Interview with Larry Tye | Retrieved 2011–11–09 — https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103933268
- Pullman Porters Helped Build Black Middle Class — https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103880184
- The Historic Achievement of the Pullman Porter’s Union — https://daily.jstor.org/historic-achievement-pullman-porters-union
