Explorations in Black Leadership

Co-Directed by Phyllis Leffler & Julian Bond

Influence of Pullman Porters

BOND: You know, I met a fellow recently who is doing a study of Pullman porters. And everybody's familiar with the role the porters themselves played in the civil rights movement, E. D. Nixon in Montgomery, but he's also making the argument that the children of sleeping car porters became people of prominence in black affairs. And I'm confident it's true. You just have to look deeply into the lives of many of the people we know about as prominent figures and right there is a father or an uncle who was a Pullman car porter. What is it about Pullman car porters?

LEFTWICH: I think it's the — I think you have to look at it from the other perspective. What were the employment opportunities of dignity for African American men in the '20s and the '30s and even into the '40s up to the Second World War? You could be a postman. You could have a profession, be a doctor or a lawyer or dentist or something of that. You could be a teacher. Or you could work on the road as it was called where — there's a book out called A Man Named George.

BOND: Yes.

LEFTWICH: This is about that —

BOND: George Pullman's boys.

LEFTWICH: That's right, everybody was named George. But they were the elite of the service industry. They considered themselves to be skilled and expert at what they did. It was a closed system, you have to remember. Everybody couldn't be a Pullman car porter. The porters themselves decided who was polished enough and expert enough to be included in their ranks. They were the people who represented the upward mobility of the black community.

BOND: And they were economically independent.

LEFTWICH: And they were economically independent because their earnings were based on how well they did their job — however you define that, it was a question of how well they did the job because they were tipped and their tips were what they used to elevate their — raise their standard of living, to send their kids to school, and it was expected of the children of the sleeping car porters and the railroad men that they would be better off than their parents, that they would go further.BOND: You know, I met a fellow recently who is doing a study of Pullman porters. And everybody's familiar with the role the porters themselves played in the civil rights movement, E. D. Nixon in Montgomery, but he's also making the argument that the children of sleeping car porters became people of prominence in black affairs. And I'm confident it's true. You just have to look deeply into the lives of many of the people we know about as prominent figures and right there is a father or an uncle who was a Pullman car porter. What is it about Pullman car porters?

LEFTWICH: I think it's the — I think you have to look at it from the other perspective. What were the employment opportunities of dignity for African American men in the '20s and the '30s and even into the '40s up to the Second World War? You could be a postman. You could have a profession, be a doctor or a lawyer or dentist or something of that. You could be a teacher. Or you could work on the road as it was called where — there's a book out called A Man Named George.

BOND: Yes.

LEFTWICH: This is about that —

BOND: George Pullman's boys.

LEFTWICH: That's right, everybody was named George. But they were the elite of the service industry. They considered themselves to be skilled and expert at what they did. It was a closed system, you have to remember. Everybody couldn't be a Pullman car porter. The porters themselves decided who was polished enough and expert enough to be included in their ranks. They were the people who represented the upward mobility of the black community.

BOND: And they were economically independent.

LEFTWICH: And they were economically independent because their earnings were based on how well they did their job — however you define that, it was a question of how well they did the job because they were tipped and their tips were what they used to elevate their — raise their standard of living, to send their kids to school, and it was expected of the children of the sleeping car porters and the railroad men that they would be better off than their parents, that they would go further.