Racism And The Rights of Black Railway Workers

“A community is democratic only when the humblest and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social rights that the biggest and most powerful possess.”- A. Philip Randolph. Many times we only watch the television for purposes of entertainment. However, there are many informative and thought provoking programmes that deal with serious and life changing topics. One such series is The Porter. The Porter follows the journeys of a group of characters who hustle, dream, cross borders and pursue their ambitions in the fight for liberation on and off the railways that crossed North America. The Porter is a gripping story of empowerment, struggle and determination that highlights the moment when railway workers from both Canada and the United States joined together to give birth to the world's first Black union. The series is set primarily in Montreal in Canada and the US cities of Chicago and Detroit. It is set in the period shortly after the First World War (1914-1918) as the international community picked up the pieces and rebuilt. The Porter depicts the Black community in St. Antoine, Montreal known, at the time, as the “Harlem of the North.” Black men employed as sleeping car porters in Canada from the late nineteenth century until the mid‐1950s experienced racial discrimination and exploitation on the job. In order to improve their situation, these men turned to unions such as the Order of Sleeping Car Porters (OSCP) and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) and fought for better wages and working conditions. In April 1917, the sleeping car porters began to organize their own union. This union, known as the Order of Sleeping Car Porters (OSCP), was the first Black labour union in North America. The OSCP was established in Winnipeg, Canada by porters John Arthur Robinson, J.W. Barber, B.F. Jones and P. White. The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) was a labor union organized by African American employees of the Pullman Company on August 25, 1925 in New York City. The BSCP was the very first African-American labor union to sign a collective bargaining agreement with a major U.S. corporation. The BSCP was led by A. Philip Randolph and Milton P. Webster. The intersectionalities across borders concerning the experiences of people of colour are evident in this narrative. Interestingly, the Jamaica Railway, constructed in 1845, was the first line opened to traffic outside Europe and North America. The rail service was established in the United Kingdom in 1825, the United States in 1830 and Canada in 1836. Equally important the Jamaica Railway has the distinction of being constructed soon after the first public railway in Britain. Additionally, it was the first one built in the British colonies. With the commencement of the construction of the Panama Railroad in 1850, thousands of Caribbean West Indians began to migrate en masse in search of a better life. Caribbean West Indians came to Panama in the 1850’s to help build the railroads and an even larger wave began to arrive in the 1880’s to begin construction on the canal. It is recorded that under French control of the canal project 12,875 laborers were on the payrolls of which 10,844 were British West Indians: 9,005 Jamaicans, 1,344 Barbadians and 495 St. Lucians. The members of the BSCP were porters employed by the Pullman Company. The Pullman Palace Car Company was established by George Pullman in 1867, becoming the Pullman Company in 1900. The company was the largest employer of African Americans, purposefully hiring formerly enslaved people to achieve the high-quality customer service the Pullman cars were known for. Among the jobs done by the sleeping car porters were: shining of shoes, the making of beds, as well as waking passengers, and other support services to ensure a comfortable train trip. Due to racism African Americans were not allowed to fill higher paying and better regarded jobs such as conductors. Needless to say the porters endured poor working conditions; working long hours for little pay which was meant to be supplemented by tips. Unsurprisingly, the porters were expected to pay for their uniforms, meals and sleeping quarters while traveling. Porters were dehumanized, sometimes called racial slurs, “boy,” or “George,” which referred to porters as the belongings of George Pullman. Cecil Foster in his book: They Call Me George: The Untold Story of Black Train Porters and the Birth of Modern Canada states; “smartly dressed and smiling, Canada's black train porters were a familiar sight to the average passenger yet their minority status rendered them politically invisible, second-class in the social imagination that determined who was and who was not considered Canadian.”

Civil Rights Movement. Prior to the advent of the Civil Rights Movement, race relations were tumultuous in North America. Civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph was chosen to be the leader of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. This made sense given that he was not employed by the Pullman Company. Randolph was known for being an advocate for workers' rights and edited a magazine, The Messenger, which he used to raise awareness of the labor movement. Like any other category of workers; the black porters wanted to improve their working conditions, but unions, such as the Canadian Brotherhood of Railroad Employees (CBRE), would not allow Black people to become members. The Order of Sleeping Car Porters (OSCP) faced many difficult challenges. They operated without support from the CBRE, which continued to negotiate contracts with employers on behalf of white union members but did nothing to improve the working conditions of Black porters. The OSCP had to overcome the racism of the Canadian National Railway (CNR) management, which viewed Black people as a cheap and disposable pool of labour who did not deserve job protections. After its hard‐fought successes with CNR porters, the OSCP focused on organizing porters working for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). This company was even more resistant to unionization than the CNR: it forced employees to sign contracts that prohibited union activity and did not hesitate to fire employees involved in organizing. This mass firing of black porters served to demoralized sleeping car porter unionization efforts for over 10 years, until porters began organizing with the support of the US‐based Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) in 1939. This clearly was a turning point in unionization for African Americans. However, the struggle for racial equality and respect on the job was not over with unionization. Porters were still discriminated against when applying for the position of sleeping car conductor a senior and better‐paid role that was reserved for white people. In the early 1900’s a Pullman porter was one of the better paid and socially regarded positions available to African Americans. The Pullman porters contributed to the growth of the Black middle class. Many famous African Americans were former porters or descendants of Pullman porters. These include North Pole explorer Matthew Henson, Jamaican poet Claude McKay, and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Many members of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters were important influences to the civil rights movement including A. Philip Randolph, E.D. Nixon, and C.L. Dellums. The Porter. Among the stars of television series The Porter are: Alfre Woodard who plays as Fay, a Montréal business owner. Woodard is a decorated actress and has earned an Oscar nomination and multiple Emmy wins in a film and television career that spanned over three decades. Ami Ameen who plays the character Junior Massey a porter with the transcontinental railroad, Ronnie Rowe Jr. who plays Zeke Garrett, a porter and war buddy of Junior and Mouna Traore who plays Marlene Massey, a worker with the Black Cross Nurses.

Cecil Foster in his book also showed how black train porters who were underpaid, overworked, and ineligible for promotion played a critical role in demanding fair treatment. Foster refers to a watershed event in 1954, when a train car filled with black porters and their allies descended on Ottawa to meet with federal cabinet members to demand immediate changes to discriminatory immigration and labour policies. Importantly, a year earlier, Ottawa had passed the Fair Employment Practices Act, which was supposed to protect workers against discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, national origin, and religion. By the early 1970s, Canada’s immigration policy changed to remove barriers based on skin colour, and multiculturalism became entrenched as national policy. It was after this change in Canada’s immigration policy that a number of Jamaicans and Caribbean nationals left for Canada. Foster’s view, that black train porters deserve a large part of the credit for helping to make Canada the uniquely multicultural country it is today is indisputable. Canada today continues to attract the best and brightest to its shore. The early work done by the Order of the Sleeping Car Porters as well as the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters paved the way for emigrants to North America, especially those of colour. Let us salute the groundbreaking and fearless work of these individuals as we tell their stories. It is disturbing that so much of our history as people of colour is hidden. This is especially troubling with developments in Florida where African Studies is banned in high schools under the leadership of Republican governor Ron DeSantis. We must never forget our history. In the words of Claude McKay, if we must die, let it not be like hogs. Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, Making their mock at our accursèd lot. If we must die, O let us nobly die, So that our precious blood may not be shed. In vain; then even the monsters we defy. Shall be constrained to honour us though dead! Wayne Campbell is an educator and social commentator with an interest in development policies as they affect culture and or gender issues. waykam@yahoo.com @WayneCamo © #OrderofSleepingCarPorters #BrotherhoodofSleepingCarPorters #tradeunionism #racism #civilrights #BlackHistory