The fact that the meeting was even happening was enough to produce an air of subversive excitement. On August 25, 1925, a century ago this year, black sleeping car porters hoping to form a union at the Pullman Company packed the room at the Elks Hall in Harlem. Though we’ll never know how many, Pullman company spies were undoubtedly among the audience.
In fact, to combat the presence of these spies, no porters even spoke during the meeting. Instead, A. Philip Randolph, then an eccentric soapbox socialist with a string of failed unionization attempts behind him, led the meeting. He argued that a union was the only way to confront the company, address the porters’ grievances, and reclaim their manhood. And that he should be the man to lead them.
Common wisdom and past precedent suggested this campaign would go like so many before it: a flurry of enthusiasm followed by dashed hopes and a sober return to reality. But instead, this gathering initiated a twelve-year struggle to form the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and win a first contract against a corporate giant.
The significance of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) went far beyond one union and its members. “The Brotherhood,” as many members affectionately called it, would become a vessel through which to educate black communities about labor unions and challenge paternalistic corporate relationships. It acted as a critical institutional anchor through which broader fights for civil rights were waged and activist pressure tactics were developed.
The story of the BSCP illuminates the deep historical connection between the labor movement and civil rights. Through patient institution building and dogged determination, the union was able to shift the consciousness and balance of power within black communities to support unionization. This coalition was the backbone of the historic progress made toward civil rights during the mid-twentieth century. Rather than leave it in the past, this same coalition can provide the basis for fighting racial inequality today.
Black Pullman porters occupied a complicated class position within black communities. Associated simultaneously with dignity and servility, the porter represented a contradictory symbol of black advancement. Their emergence can be traced quite literally back to chattel slavery.