Sleeping car porters : The Forgotten backbone of white comfort
Photo Credit: Pullman Porter – Wikimedia Commons. (1943, January 1). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PullmanPorter.jpg
A white man aboard a luxury train in 1913 could be just about anyone, be it the conductor or a wealthy passenger.
A black man aboard that exact same train could be nothing more than a porter.
Who Were They?
Today, the term ‘Porter’ refers to hotel and train station baggage handlers. In this context, however, the job implies much more.
Sleeping cars were trains with sleeping berths for long-distance or overnight travel. Naturally, the porters working in those trains were called ‘sleeping car porters’.
In the 1870s, Pullman Sleeping Cars, named after their inventor George M. Pullman, gained popularity for their lavishness ; chandeliers, privacy curtains, retractable beds, and a quality of service like no other offered by the porters. These men were Canadian, American, Caribbean, sometimes even Welsh, but they were always Black.
The Porters’ Treatment
Each car had a porter tasked with fulfilling the passengers’ every need and desire. They carried luggage, made beds, polished shoes, cleaned the common areas, the rooms, the bathrooms, babysat children as well as drunk adults… All of this on maybe three hours of sleep. A porter’s job wasn’t ever truly over until the train arrived at its terminus. Their scarcely used mattresses sat directly on the floor of smoking rooms, away from the passengers’ eyes. The average porter would endure these conditions for 72 hours at a time. They were nicknamed ‘sleepy car porters’.
The pay wasn’t great and neither were the benefits. Porters paid out of pocket for their meals, uniforms, and shoeshine, as well as any item that went missing from their car.
Porters were treated as being inferior to the passengers; they couldn’t initiate conversations or sit with their clients. They were to address the passengers as ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’. Failure to comply with these rules or to satisfy the passengers’ desires would lead to ‘demerit’ points, which would eventually get a porter suspended or fired.
Though porters addressed their clients with respect, it didn’t go both ways. The men weren’t given name tags to keep up the illusion of the ‘anonymous help’. Instead, passengers would call their porter ‘Boy’, regardless of the man’s age. When porters weren’t addressed as if they were children, they would all get called ‘George’.
The treatment of porters was by design meant to emulate that of subservient slaves. The fact that porters were all addressed as ‘George’ is itself a direct nod to slavery. According to tradition, slaves were often named after their masters; George was the first name of Pullman, founder of the sleeping car company.
Many porters were overqualified for the position, some having university degrees. But the career opportunities for black men were scarce, and so, smart, educated men were reduced to anonymous service.
The Union
Black porters weren’t allowed in the preexisting railway worker unions, so, in April 1917, they created their own; the Order of Sleeping Car Porters (OSCP), the first ever Black labour union in North America.
By 1919, the OSCP had already negotiated two contracts. The union faced backlash, however, from the Canadian Pacific Railway. The company forced its workers to sign contracts prohibiting unionizing. In the 1920s, 36 porters were fired for union activities, after which the union disappeared until the 1940s. In May 1945, an agreement passed, promising porters a monthly salary increase, paid vacation, and, after over 70 years, sleeping quarters.
Photo credit: Sleeping Cars. Vintage travel Posters, 1920s – 1930’s. (1936). Picryl. https://picryl.com/search?q=Sleeping%20cars.%20Vintage%20Travel%20Posters%2C%201920s-1930s
Conclusion
During this Black History Month, I invite you all to focus on the stories of Black communities that have shaped Canada’s history. If you are unsure of where to start, and are still curious about the stories of porters, I invite you to read a personal favourite of mine: The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr. It’s a short read containing odd character descriptions, time-accurate storylines, as well as a charming sleep-deprived main character who’s obsessed with teeth. I’m biased of course, but I think it’s a great read!
Sources:
- Black sleeping car porters | CMHR. (2020, February 26). CMHR. https://humanrights.ca/story/sleeping-car-porters
- Hneve. (2021, January 29). How the Black Sleeping Car Porters Shaped Canada. Cranbrook History Centre. https://www.cranbrookhistorycentre.com/how-the-black-sleeping-car-porters-shaped-canada/
- Hoye, B. (2020, February 29). A century ago, Winnipeg railways became ‘birthplace’ of fight for black Canadian workers’ rights. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/sleeping-car-porters-winnipeg-1.5477349#:~:text=Saje%20Mathieu%2C%20a%20history%20professor,railway%20union%20in%20North%20America.
- The Working Conditions & Segregation of Black Railway Porters – Museum of Toronto. (2024, April 2). Museum of Toronto. https://museumoftoronto.com/collection/conditions-segregation/
