Download or read book Rising from the Rails written by Larry Tye and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2005-06-01 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A valuable window into a long-underreported dimension of African American history."—Newsday An engaging social history that reveals the critical role Pullman porters played in the struggle for African American civil rights When George Pullman began recruiting Southern blacks as porters in his luxurious new sleeping cars, the former slaves suffering under Jim Crow laws found his offer of a steady job and worldly experience irresistible. They quickly signed up to serve as maid, waiter, concierge, nanny, and occasionally doctor and undertaker to cars full of white passengers, making the Pullman Company the largest employer of African American men in the country by the 1920s. In the world of the Pullman sleeping car, where whites and blacks lived in close proximity, porters developed a unique culture marked by idiosyncratic language, railroad lore, and shared experience. They called difficult passengers "Mister Charlie"; exchanged stories about Daddy Jim, the legendary first Pullman porter; and learned to distinguish generous tippers such as Humphrey Bogart from skinflints like Babe Ruth. At the same time, they played important social, political, and economic roles, carrying jazz and blues to outlying areas, forming America's first black trade union, and acting as forerunners of the modern black middle class by virtue of their social position and income. Drawing on extensive interviews with dozens of porters and their descendants, Larry Tye reconstructs the complicated world of the Pullman porter and the vital cultural, political, and economic roles they played as forerunners of the modern black middle class. Rising from the Rails provides a lively and enlightening look at this important social phenomenon. • Named a Recommended Book by The Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, and The Seattle Times
Download or read book Pullman Porters and the Rise of Protest Politics in Black America 1925 1945 written by Beth Tompkins Bates and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2003-01-14 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between World War I and World War II, African Americans' quest for civil rights took on a more aggressive character as a new group of black activists challenged the politics of civility traditionally embraced by old-guard leaders in favor of a more forceful protest strategy. Beth Tompkins Bates traces the rise of this new protest politics--which was grounded in making demands and backing them up with collective action--by focusing on the struggle of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) to form a union in Chicago, headquarters of the Pullman Company. Bates shows how the BSCP overcame initial opposition from most of Chicago's black leaders by linking its union message with the broader social movement for racial equality. As members of BSCP protest networks mobilized the black community around the quest for manhood rights and economic freedom, they broke down resistance to organized labor even as they expanded the boundaries of citizenship to include equal economic opportunity. By the mid-1930s, BSCP protest networks gained platforms at the national level, fusing Brotherhood activities first with those of the National Negro Congress and later with the March on Washington Movement. Lessons learned during this era guided the next generation of activists, who carried the black freedom struggle forward after World War II.
Download or read book The Pullman Porters and West Oakland written by Thomas Tramble and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2007 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A hub of transportation and industry since the mid-19th century, West Oakland is today a vital commercial conduit and an inimitably distinct and diverse community within the Greater Oakland metropolitan area. The catalyst that transformed this neighborhood from a transcontinental rail terminal into a true settlement was the arrival of the railroad porters, employed by the Pullman Palace Car Company as early as 1867. After years of struggling in labor battles and negotiations, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Union became the first African Americanaled union to sign a contract with a large American company. The unionas West Coast headquarters were established at Fifth and Wood Streets in West Oakland. Soon families, benevolent societies, and churches followed, and a true community came into being.
Download or read book A Long Hard Journey written by Pat McKissack and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A chronicle of the first Black-controlled union, made up of Pullman porters, who after years of unfair labor practices staged a battle against a corporate giant resulting in a "David and Goliath" ending.
Download or read book The Pullman Porter written by Vanita Oelschlager and published by . This book was released on 2014-02-21 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Porters worked in early train cars, they would look, listen and learn from their predominantly white passengers. They would read the newspapers passengers left behind, listen to conversations and begin to talk to one another. The porter learned how i
Download or read book A Long Hard Journey written by Pat McKissack and published by Walker & Company. This book was released on 1995 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The moving story of the courage and solidarity that helped shape the history of African Americans explains how the actions of the train workers fraternity helped change the way of labor and the civil rights movement in this country. Winner of the Coretta Scott King Award. Reprint.
Download or read book Miles of Smiles Years of Struggle written by Jack Santino and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 1991 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As service workers in a luxurious sleeping-car train system, Pullman porters had both the highest status in the black community and the lowest rank on the train. They were trapped in the dual roles of charming host and obedient servant, and their constant smiles--even in the face of unreasonable demands by white passengers--were part of the job requirement. Jack Santino's interviews with retired porters provide extensive firsthand accounts of their work, the job inequities they faced, the formation of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and the aborted Pullman porter strike of 1928. Through the testimony of ran-and-file workers as well as key figures such as E. D. Nixon, the porter who initiated the Montgomery bus boycott and helped launch the career of Martin Luther King, Jr. and C.L. Dellums, the only surviving founding member of the BSCP, Miles of Smiles, Years of Struggle illuminates the Pullman porters' struggle for dignity.
Download or read book The Pullman Porter written by Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and published by . This book was released on 1927 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters written by Robert L Allen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-11-17 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters created a sea of change in labour and race relations in the US. For the first time in US history, a black labour union played a central role in shaping labor and civil rights policy. Based on interviews and archival research, this new book tells the story of the union and its charismatic leader C.L. Dellums, starting from the BSCP's origins as the first national union of black workers in 1925. In 1937, the BSCP made history when it compelled one of the largest US corporations - the Pullman Company - to recognize and negotiate a contract with a black workers' union. C. L. Dellums was a leading civil rights activist as well as a labor leader. In 1948, he was chosen to be the first West Coast Regional Director of the NAACP. This book is an inspiring testament to both him and the unions transformative impact on US society.
Download or read book Those Pullman Blues written by David D. Perata and published by Madison Books. This book was released on 1999 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first oral history centering on the unique experiences of black porters and railroad attendants during the railway's heyday is by turns dramatic, inspiring, comic, and heart wrenching. First-person accounts document both the glamour of the railroad era and the bitter realities of being a black worker on a white railroad. 35 photos.
Download or read book A Long Hard Journey written by Pat McKissack and published by Turtleback Books. This book was released on 1989-01-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A chronicle of the first black-controlled union, made up of Pullman porters, who after years of unfair labor practices staged a battle against a corporate giant resulting in a "David and Goliath" ending.
Download or read book An Anthology of Respect written by Lyn Hughes and published by Hughes-Peterson Publishing. This book was released on 2007 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In addition to the book being an important educative contribution to an often overlooked component of American history; it can also serve as an aid to: genealogists, historians and most importantly descendants of these men, moreover, to all who are interested in research on what has become a growing area of interest. The publication of An Anthology Of Respect: The Pullman Porters National Historic Registry of African American Railroad Employees, represents a unique scholarly contribution to the fields of African American and American Labor History.
Download or read book The Pullman Porter written by Vanita Oelschlager and published by Vanita Books. This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oelschlager explains who Pullman porters were and why they are important in America's history. Predominantly African-American men, Pullman porters worked in early train cars and eventually landed at the forefront of the civil rights movement. Full color.
Download or read book Rising from the Rails written by Larry Tye and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2005-06 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A valuable window into a long-underreported dimension of African American history."--Newsday When George Pullman began recruiting Southern blacks as porters in his luxurious new sleeping cars, the former slaves suffering under Jim Crow laws found his offer of a steady job and worldly experience irresistible. They quickly signed up to serve as maid, waiter, concierge, nanny, and occasionally doctor and undertaker to cars full of white passengers, making the Pullman Company the largest employer of African Americans in the country by the 1920s. Drawing on extensive interviews with dozens of porters and their descendants, Larry Tye reconstructs the complicated world of the Pullman porter and the vital cultural, political, and economic roles they played as forerunners of the modern black middle class. Rising from the Rails provides a lively and enlightening look at this important social phenomenon. - Named a Recommended Book by The Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, and The Seattle Times
Download or read book From Superman to Man written by J. A. Rogers and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2011-05-01 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book from “a tireless champion of African history,” a novel that “challenged the theories that Blacks were inferior to whites” (New York Amsterdam News). Joel Augustus Roger’s seminal work from the Harlem Renaissance, this novel—first published in 1917—is a polemic against the ignorance that fuels racism. The central plot revolves around a train speeding to California, serviced by an African American porter named Dixon. On board is a United States senator from Oklahoma, a man obsessed by race who makes no attempts to hide his prejudice. Unable to sleep, the politician encounters Dixon in the smoking car, and thus ensues a debate about religion, science, and racial equality . . . “A bold discussion novel in which a cultured, well-travelled, black Pullman porter is drawn into a debate with a white passenger, a Southern senator, on the question of the superiority of the Anglo Saxon and the inferiority of the Negro.” —The Guardian “A genuine treasure. I still insist that From ‘Superman’ to Man is the greatest book ever written in English on the Negro by a Negro and I am glad to know that increasing thousands of black and white readers re-echo the high opinion of it which I had expressed some years ago.” —Hubert Henry Harrison “A stirring story, faithful to truth and helpful to a better understanding and feeling.” —Prof. George B. Foster, University of Chicago
Download or read book Hey Boy Hey George The Pullman Porter A Pullman Porter s Story written by Johnnie F. Kirvin and published by Booksurge Publishing. This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A powerful journey of a black man's dreams and dilemmas, fears and perseverance. Cerebral and racy, historical and reflective, "Hey boy! Hey George!" The Pullman Porter chronicles Kirvin's experience as a Pullman porter during WWII. Some viewed Pullman porters as prestigious breadwinners, while others viewed them as glorified servants, but what was it really like to deliver a standard of excellence while trying to survive and earn a living under Jim Crow segregation laws? Experience Kirvin's challenges firsthand, then decide for yourself.
Download or read book North of the Color Line written by Sarah-Jane Mathieu and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2010-11-29 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: North of the Color Line examines life in Canada for the estimated 5,000 blacks, both African Americans and West Indians, who immigrated to Canada after the end of Reconstruction in the United States. Through the experiences of black railway workers and their union, the Order of Sleeping Car Porters, Sarah-Jane Mathieu connects social, political, labor, immigration, and black diaspora history during the Jim Crow era. By World War I, sleeping car portering had become the exclusive province of black men. White railwaymen protested the presence of the black workers and insisted on a segregated workforce. Using the firsthand accounts of former sleeping car porters, Mathieu shows that porters often found themselves leading racial uplift organizations, galvanizing their communities, and becoming the bedrock of civil rights activism. Examining the spread of segregation laws and practices in Canada, whose citizens often imagined themselves as devoid of racism, Mathieu historicizes Canadian racial attitudes, and explores how black migrants brought their own sensibilities about race to Canada, participating in and changing political discourse there.
