10. Pullman Porters contributed to the development of a Black middle class
Today the term porter is considered derogatory, and the presentation of Pullman Porter’s racist and a pejorative. Not so during their heyday. George Pullman actively recruited former slaves to work as porters in his sleeping cars following the American Civil War. The Pullman Company owned the sleeper and dining cars in which the porters worked, operating them as basically rolling hotels. Pullman service, offered by the porters, became the gold standard on long-distance trains. Pullman Porters received relatively low wages, though their income was subsidized through gratuities from passengers served. In 1925 Pullman Porters organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first Black labor union in the United States. Membership extended to porters from competing companies.
By necessity, Pullman Porters traveled extensively and became an information channel between Black communities. In their day they were highly esteemed by most Blacks, as well as many Whites. Following the formation of the Brother of Sleeping Car Porters, wages improved. According to a prominent Black historian, Timuel Black, “…a Pullman Porter was a prestigious position because it offered steady income and an opportunity to travel across the country”. By the 1950s, some Pullman Porters were White. A decade later, declining rail traffic and the rise of the Civil Rights Movement placed Pullman Porters in a bad light among many Blacks, who considered them a symbol of servitude. The son of a Pullman Porter, Thurgood Marshall, later became the first African American on the Supreme Court.