Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters uniform

The Pullman Company, which manufactured and operated train cars, was once the biggest employer of Black men in the United States. Pullman exclusively recruited African American men to serve as the train attendants known as Pullman porters. The American Railway Union refused membership to Black workers, so these men, under the leadership of A. Philip Randolph, formed the first all-Black union: the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. They earned a minimal salary augmented by tips from passengers but were highly respected within the African American community. They also provided an unofficial conduit for information to and from Southern and Northern Black people, delivering newspapers that advertised jobs in the North and helping to spearhead the Great Migration of African Americans from the Jim Crow South.