Pullman Porters and the Rise of Protest Politics in Black America, 1925-1945 (review)

Despite the title of Bates' monograph, the sleeping-car porters employed by the legendary Pullman Company do not play a central role in her story. True, A. Philip Randolph, the charismatic socialist intellectual who became the leader of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters ( BSCP ), is, necessarily, a pivotal player. In 1937, after more than a decade of struggle, Randolph succeeded in negotiating a collective-bargaining agreement for the 12,000 porters and 200 maids employed by Pullman. But the porters themselves are present in the narrative mainly as symbols of servitude, second-class citizenship, and the denial of "manhood rights" that afflicted all of black America. Randolph quickly came to understand that "the destiny of the entire race" was involved in the porters' struggle for union recognition, and that winning major segments of the black middle class to a new and more militant style of politics held the key to success for the BSCP (1). Thus, this book is largely about the rise of protest politics in the black community and the displacement of a deferential old-guard leadership by a dynamic "new crowd" symbolized, in part, by Randolph himself.

When George Pullman founded the Pullman Company in 1867, his goal was to provide railroad passengers with luxury and service. Pullman's famed palace cars offered the luxury; black porters provided the service. Along with the vast majority of white Americans, Pullman believed that blacks were servants "by nature" (17). The Pullman porter became known, generically, as "George"; he was entirely at the disposal of his white customers and depended on tips for a good part of his income. This form of servitude, in the recollections of many porters, "resembled slavery" (23). But on top of their meager monthly wage, the porters' tips provided a better living than most black laboring men could earn. Moreover, because they traveled from coast to coast and experienced the high and low ends of the social spectrum, the porters were famous among African-Americans for their "urbanity and sophistication" (24). It is emblematic of the great divide separating black and white America that the same man whom whites regarded as the generic servant known only as "George" was, in the black community, a respected member of the middle class.

When Randolph set out to organize the porters in the mid-1920s, he recognized that their plight was far more than economic. Rather, it was rooted in the legacy of slavery, the association of blackness with servitude, and the denial of citizenship rights and full humanity to African-Americans. The BSCP was, necessarily, more than a labor union; it was asocial movement that sought to address the economic, political, and psychological needs of every segment of black America. Much of Bates' study is dedicated to uncovering the remarkable network of black- community activists and institutions that broadened the base of the Pullman porters' struggle and, at the same time, developed a pro-labor perspective among key segments of the black middle class. The main battleground was the city of Chicago, the home of the Pullman Company and of about one-third of the nation's Pullman porters. Pullman's welfare capitalism, and the long arm of the city's Republican political machine, had defined the limits of the possible in Chicago's black community. But aided by a group of black clubwomen—above all, the indefatigable Ida B. Wells-Barnett—as well as by a number of influential ministers who preached a social gospel sharply at odds with the prevailing message in the black church, the BSCP leadership became the vanguard of a new politics based upon an uncompromising demand for full citizenship, freedom from white control, and a commitment to mobilize the black masses to fight on their own behalf...