This is a topical collection of items relating to red caps and Pullman porters, positions associated with train travel during the 20th century.

These jobs reinforced the social status of African-Americans while at the same time ensuring steady, reliable work and the rise of an African-American middle class. C

 

A. Philip Randolph and the development of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters later impacted the Civil Rights movement.  The Pullman Porters organized and founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925. The BSCP was the very first African-American labor union to sign a collective bargaining agreement with a major U.S. corporation. A. Philip Randolph was the determined, dedicated, and articulate president of this union who fought to improve the working conditions and pay for the Pullman Porters.