Opinion: Racial justice and the railroads – CT Mirror

As we celebrate Black History month, let’s remember that the path to civil rights began long before the march to Selma.  It happened on city buses in 1955 in Montgomery Alabama and for decades before that on railroads across America. In the history of American transportation, there is one crucial intersection between railroads and civil rights:  the formation in 1925 of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car porters by A. Phillip Randolph.  This was the first predominantly African-American labor union in the U.S. Pullman cars It was in 1859 that George Pullman launched the first deluxe railroad sleeping cars bearing his name.  They were an instant hit, offering middle and upper-class passengers the comforts of home. All of the Pullman car conductors were white but the porters who tended to the passengers were Black.  Many of them were former slaves as Pullman theorized, they would be used to the subservient roles of lugging baggage, making up the sleeping berths and serving the white passengers’ every whim. After they retired for the night, passengers could place their shoes in a small compartment accessible from the corridor where the porters would retrieve and shine them while passengers slept. Long hours, low pay Pullman’s porters had to be on…
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