Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class
- Book Review,
by Larry Tye
From Publishers Weekly
What have the poet Claude McKay, the filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, the explorer Matthew Henson, the musician "Big Bill" Broonzy and college president Benjamin Mays in common? They all worked for the Pullman Company, which until 1969 owned the sleeper cars for and ran the sleeper service on the U.S. railroads, and was at one time "the largest employer of Negroes in America and probably the world." Blacks, preferably those with "jet-black skin," supplied "the social separation... vital for porters to safely interact with white passengers in such close quarters." Although Tye makes the general case for the centrality of "The Pullman Porter" in the making of the black middle class (and in much of American cultural life), the particular porter becomes supportive detail for a highly readable business history at one end and labor history at the other. Former BostonGlobe journalist Tye (The Father of Spin) interviewed as many surviving porters as he could find as well as their children, and immersed himself in autobiographies, oral histories, biographies, newspapers, company records—wherever the porter might be glimpsed, including fiction and film. Entertaining detail abounds: Bogart was a solid tipper; Seabiscuit traveled in a "specially modified eighty-foot car cushioned with the finest straw." So does informing detail: the long hours, the dire working conditions, the low pay, the lively idiom, the burdensome rules. While "The Pullman porter... was the only black man many [whites] ever saw," Tye shows what whites never saw—the grinding, often humiliating, realities of the job and the rippling effect of steady employment in the upward mobility of the porters' children and grandchildren. 40 b&w photos not seen by PW. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
In the 1933 film version of Eugene O'Neill's play "The Emperor Jones," Paul Robeson vividly portrayed the popular image of the black Pullman porter. At a church gathering, Robeson's porter, who looks striking in his new Pullman dress uniform, receives congratulations from friends and neighbors as, bustling with importance, he rushes to meet his train. The reality was more complicated. In segregated America before 1960, porters -- all of whom were black -- made beds for white passengers on the nation's sleeping cars, cleaned their clothes, shoes and spittoons as needed, and navigated a treacherous social climate where an unchecked response to the daily quota of racist attitudes could cost them their jobs, or worse. Little wonder that Malcolm X, who sold sandwiches on passenger trains in the 1940s, thought black porters and waiters were of necessity "both servants and psychologists." Still, the work was steady and commanded a salary above what most other blacks, North or South, would ever earn. This is the world that Larry Tye, a former reporter for the Boston Globe, explores in his new book. His interviews with a number of surviving porters (the Pullman Company ceased operations in 1968) provide a warm and, at times, intimate portrait of these men and their families as they struggled to balance financial rewards with the frequent assaults on dignity inherent in their work. In the process they built a union that defeated a major corporation and, from the beginning, supported civil rights efforts. These porters also created a unique communications system, carrying newspapers, magazines and word of political and cultural activities from one black community to another on their regular runs. Much of this story is not new -- Tye relies on works by William H. Harris and Jervis Anderson, among others -- but it remains a story well worth telling, and Tye presents it with stylistic grace.Imposed upon the narrative, however, is a narrowly constructed, misleading analysis. Tye claims that the Pullman porter, understood collectively, was "the most influential black man in America," more important than Booker T. Washington before his death in 1915 or even W.E.B. Du Bois across the six decades after 1900. He was the true instigator of the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott that sparked the civil rights movement, and one specific porter (E.D. Nixon) "tapped Martin Luther King Jr. to lead both." Tye argues that porters achieved this singular impact on American history because their work provided them with the "chance to enter the cherished middle class" and to pass that status onto succeeding generations. Tye offers only anecdotal evidence for this last claim but is certain of its validity because Pullman porters "believed in higher education . . . and embraced the gospel of economic mobility." These exaggerated claims allow Tye to present himself as a revisionist historian intent on restoring to porters their rightful place. In so doing, however, he unintentionally distorts that history by presenting porters apart from the intricate ties of church, social organizations and political struggles of black Americans in the pre-Montgomery years.Pullman porters did occupy a valued economic position within black America, largely because they made more money than nearly 80 percent of working people in their communities, many of whom earned salaries at or below the poverty level. Had the porters been an actual middle class, they might have been able to generate the entrepreneurial activities that proved so important in providing jobs among immigrants, for example. Segregation, of course, prevented all but a very small black middle class from emerging before 1960. How, then, did these working-class porters embrace those "middle class" values of continued education and eventual mobility? Had Tye explored the porters' roots in their local communities, he would have found that those values were never limited to the tiny middle class. Fraternal organizations embodied them, church groups sponsored literary and oratorical contests for youth, and a near-religious faith framed the hopes of many students and teachers as they toiled in their segregated schools. As important as the porters were in encouraging such efforts -- they, too, were active in church and fraternal organizations -- they were but part of a far broader movement that, between 1940 and 1980, resulted in a rise in black high school completion rates from 15 to almost 75 percent.Tye's more specific historical analysis is also questionable. He writes that E.D. Nixon, a porter for more than three decades, not only "tapped" King to lead the Montgomery boycott but that Nixon "had given birth" to the very notion of the boycott following the arrest of Rosa Parks. For good measure, Tye also suggests that, had Nixon's work schedule not prevented him from attending a critical meeting, he would never have tapped King and instead would have become the boycott leader himself. This account is just wrong. Jo Ann Robinson and her Montgomery women's political committee first proposed the boycott; Nixon faced serious opposition when mentioned as a potential leader; and King was, as Tye does note, a compromise candidate -- at 26, too new to the city's ministerial power struggles to have yet made enemies.None of this in any way detracts from the role Nixon and other porters played in civil rights struggles. Rather, Tye's one-dimensional focus on the porters blinds him to more complex understandings and ultimately does a disservice (however unintended) to the porters and their communities. The courage and commitment of the Pullman porters to creating justice and equality before the modern civil rights movement did not develop in isolation, but rather through struggles deeply grounded in black community life. From that broader perspective, a more informative portrait would have emerged of both the porters and of their importance in our national political culture. Copyright 2004, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.
From Booklist
Although Tye focuses on Pullman porters and the formation of the black middle class, his analysis of class perceptions and race relations reverberates to the current day. Following Reconstruction, industrialist George Pullman took advantage of the limited opportunities available for freedmen, hiring and exploiting blacks--the darker the better--to serve as porters on his railroad. The porters suffered low wages, long hours, and weeks if not months away from home. In addition, they were expected to adopt a servile demeanor to provide comfort to the mostly white patrons of the Pullman sleeping cars. But the upside was employment, travel, and middle-class values and opportunities. Moreover, the fight for union recognition through A. Phillip Randolph's leadership was the basis for progress for blacks during the pre-civil rights era. The porters' labor dispute and efforts to include blacks in more favorable positions in the war industry led to the first march on Washington. Tye also explores the tension between the perception of Pullman porters as docile servants and their challenge to the status quo. Vernon Ford
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
“This book brings to life the stirring story of the civil rights legacy of A. Phillip Randolph and the Pullman porters, which is an inspiration to those of us following in their footsteps. Kudos to Larry Tye for giving us this wonderfully readable, and incredibly important, history.”
--Congressman Jesse L. Jackson, Jr.
“Larry Tye has written a much-deserved love song to the forgotten men of the civil rights and labor movements – the Pullman Porters who defeated a major corporation, helped finance numerous civil rights battles, spread news and culture nation-wide, and set a high standard for dignity.” –Julian Bond, Chairman, NAACP Board of Directors
“This is one terrific book. It's a chapter of American history about which few of us know much, and it's a reminder of what life was like for African-Americans in this country, at least until the last few decades. But it's mostly about these men-- their courage, their tenacity and their hopes and dreams for their children and grandchildren. Many of them are no longer with us, but they should and would be rightly proud of how much their kids and grandkids have achieved and how much they have given to this country.” –Michael Dukakis, Former governor of Massachusetts, former vice-chair of Amtrak board
"This book does a magnificent job in relating how a relatively small group of struggling workers shaped not only the African-American community but all of the United States. The story of the Pullman porter is no less important than any other struggle for civil rights in the American labor movement." –James P. Hoffa, General President, International Brotherhood of Teamsters
“Larry Tye's Rising from the Rails recreates an important chapter in the history of black people in this country: the hard earned passage of thousands of blacks into the middle class. By examining the progress of the Pullman porter - from the step and fetch it caricature to pensioned union member - Tye captures one of black people's many struggles to achieve equality. This is a story all Americans should know.” –Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Senior Managing Director at Lazard LLC and author of Vernon Can Read!: A Memoir
"Rising from the Rails chronicles the pioneering role the Pullman porters and their leader, A. Philip Randolph, played in building America's union movement. This vividly told story should be required reading for those who care about labor history, race history, and US history." –John J. Sweeney, President, AFL-CIO
Book Description
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 provides a lively and enlightening look at this important social phenomenon.
About the Author
Larry Tye was a longtime journalist for the The Boston Globe, winning numerous awards for his work. A former Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, he is the author of The Father of Spin (0-8050-6789-2) and Home Lands (0-8050-6591-1). He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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