Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class

by Larry Tye

"A lively and engaging chronicle that adds yet another dimension to the historical record." -The Boston Globe

When George Pullman began recruiting Southern blacks as porters in his luxurious new sleeping cars, the former slaves suffering under Jim Crow laws found his offer of a steady job and worldly experience irresistible. They quickly signed up to serve as maid, waiter, concierge, nanny, and occasionally doctor and undertaker to cars full of white passengers, making the Pullman Company the largest employer of African Americans in the country by the 1920s.

Drawing on extensive interviews with dozens of porters and their descendants, Larry Tye reconstructs the complicated world of the Pullman porter and the vital cultural, political, and economic roles they played as forerunners of the modern black middle class. Rising from the Rails provides a lively and enlightening look at this important social phenomenon.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Race, American History, African American, Trains, Railways

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Larry Tye is a New York Times bestselling author whose most recent book is a biography of Robert F. Kennedy, the former attorney general, U.S. senator, and presidential candidate. Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon explores RFK’s extraordinary transformation from cold warrior to fiery leftist.

Tye’s first book, The Father of Spin, is a biography of public relations pioneer Edward L.Bernays. Home Lands looks at the Jewish renewal underway from Boston to Buenos Aires. Rising from the Rails explores how the black men who worked on George Pullman’s railroad sleeping cars helped kick-start the Civil Rights movement and gave birth to today’s African-American middle class. Shock, a collaboration with Kitty Dukakis, is a journalist’s first-person account of electro-convulsive therapy (ECT), psychiatry’s most controversial treatment, and a portrait of how that therapy helped one woman overcome debilitating depression. Satchel is the biography of two American icons – Satchel Paige and Jim Crow. Superman tells the nearly-real life story of the most enduring American hero of the last century.

In addition to his writing, Tye runs the Boston-based Health Coverage Fellowship, which helps the media do a better job reporting on critical issues like public health, mental health, and high-tech medicine. Launched in 2001 and supported by a series of foundations, the fellowship trains a dozen medical journalists a year from newspapers,radio stations, and TV outlets nationwide.

From 1986 to 2001, Tye was an award-winning reporter at The Boston Globe, where his primary beat was medicine. He also served as the Globe’s environmental reporter, roving national writer, investigative reporter, and sports writer. Before that, he was the environmental reporter at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, and covered government and business at The Anniston Star in Alabama.

Tye, who graduated from Brown University, was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1993-94. He taught journalism at Boston University, Northeastern, and Tufts.

Reviews

[I Be Reading · Rating 5 out of 5]

My great-grandfather, who died long before I was born, was a Pullman Porter. I was so happy to find a book dedicated to the lives of these upstanding men, many of whom were the first to leave the farms in the South and went on to help create the black middle class. Five stars!

[Mikey B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book discusses the Pullman porters and how they became the Black middle class. They were more travelled than ordinary black folk of that era and also came into contact with a much wider diversity of people – particularly if you compare them to share-croppers in the Deep South. They instilled a work ethic in their families; sons could inherit the positions of their fathers.

There was a price to this as the author points out. The Pullman porters hid behind a mask – smiling and shining shoes for their white clientele. They were often called “George” – or much worse. But they could become couriers of news for the black community – picking up books and newspapers from across the country and over-hearing the conversations of their customers.

They were only able to form a union in the 1930’s when the Roosevelt administration passed laws over-ruling company unions.

There was a certain redundancy in this book and some themes are repeated too often. The biographical descriptions of George Pullman and A. Philip Randolph are interesting. The son of Abraham Lincoln – Todd, certainly did not follow in his father’s footsteps by exploiting the Pullman porters.

[Tonya Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Upon seeing the documentary, Rising From The Rails, I immediately wanted to read the book that was associated. Rarely is the history and significance of the Pullman Porter discussed and appreciated with American History. This book personalizes the challenges, struggles, indignities, and successes experienced by these beautiful group of men and the other auxiliary groups including women and other minorities working for the railroad at the end of the 19th century and 20th century.
This book gives an abundance of history regarding the Pullman Company and the personalities of the founder, George Pullman and his successors. Larry Tye, the author, does an amazing job of making sure one understands the times which shaped the world during that time period. Through the voices of former Pullman Porters, the readers are privy to their experiences on the psychology of handling the public, the awareness of their job to be seen and not heard, and to be docile in the occupation. However, there greatest accomplishment was the respect, humanism, and dignity that these men demanded even in their silence. Now that is strength.
Written history underestimates the importance and powerful for which the The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters meant not only to American history but to the progress of American Labor and its Unions. The establishment and installation of this all black labor union was the most successful black union EVER. The Brotherhood was the first workers’ organization of any color to displace a company union and was the first black union admitted as a full-fledged member of the American Federation of Labor (AFL).
Under the leadership of A. Phillip Randolph, this union of Pullman Porters because a reality through a tireless persistence for over 10 years. A. Phillip Randolph is a jewel to African- American history which in most cases is not discovered. He is usually overshadowed by Dr. King. However, Mr. Tye does an excellent job of pushing this great civil rights leader, negotiator, and intellect to the forefront.
This book makes the reader aware that not only is the existence and organization of the Pullman Porters important to the progression of Civil Rights for African Americans. But there successes profoundly impacted the elevation of future generations in the field of politics, law, academia, and social activism. (less)

[Roger Mckenzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book about the Pullman Porters. The stories of organising a union in secrecy were fascinating and eye opening. It's a shame, to say the least, that there was not more about the women working on the railroad but it was good to see how women were absolutely vital to the initial organising of the union.

Anything that tells the story of the vital contribution made by A Philip Randolph to trade unionism and to civil rights is fine by me but I was also pleased that the due respect was paid to others such as E D Nixon and C L Delums.

I recommend this book to anyone wanting to know more about how the struggles of the past give us guidance on how to stand up to the struggles of today and tomorrow.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. I thought it was well researched, particularly in light of the difficulty in finding living Pullman Porters and setting up opportunities for oral testimony/history with them. Its one of the particular joys of reading a history book when it covers something that is seemingly forgotten, and may only get a sentence, if that, in a normal history textbook. The transition of African-Americans who were slaves in the South to working on these luxury sleeping cars is fascinating, including everything from their status among themselves, with their individual communities, and as compared to larger society as well. The book doesn't sugarcoat the life, and while the story is amazing, its also a sad reminder that nothing better was available to these men because of the color of their skin. It was also interesting to read the impact the founding of the Porters' Union had on other labor movements, as well as the greater civil rights movement.

Fascinating read on a small segment of our history but a very important and impactful part of history. Worthy read.

[Linden · Rating 5 out of 5]

When George Pullman started running sleeping cars in the 19th century, he needed reliable, cheap workers, and he found them in black men, many of them former slaves who were accustomed to taking orders from entitled and patronizing white people and ordered to do menial tasks. They did get to travel, and were paid, although their salaries was considerably below that of white railroad workers. Despite the disadvantages, the job of Pullman porter was considered a good one, since the job opportunities for black men were very limited. The author has done considerable research, and ably follows the history of the Pullman porters, their drive to unionize in the 20th century, and the lasting impact these men had on both their families and the Civil Rights movement.

[Elizabeth Higginbotham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class by Larry Tye. I have been reading much about Pullman Porters and Tye’s book is recent. He covers some of the familiar ground, such as the nature of the work and the discrimination built into job. We learn about the complexities of the work and what these men learn about negotiating in the White world. Many men used these skills to move into Civil Rights work, as the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters represented a watershed moment in labor relations, civil rights and also race relations.

Tye does not ignore the troubles of this work, but addresses them even the masks that Black men had to wear on the job and the many compromises involved working in the early 20th century with little power and few concrete rights. We see how the lessons are important for the next generation. Historically many sons and nephews followed their elders into the job, but the next generation has wider options.

Tye covers the leaders, like A. Phillip Randolph, but also the many secondary leaders who not only inspired others but did the hard work of logistics and organizing. This is a balanced book that could be enjoyed by a wide audience.

[Bgirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up a the Pullman Museum. I was really surprised by how interesting this book was. I was expecting something plain yet informative but it turned out to be really interesting. Only dark skinned, ex-house slaves were at first allowed to fill the positions. The book outlines the Pullman porters' struggle to get 2 hrs a day allotment for sleep, black porters were called George but many worked hard to get around it. You saw all the work that they did which included taking care of people's children. And there were numerous stories of life on the rails, incidents in southern (and northern) towns and the importance of their moving information and newspapers across country.

And who knew the story of A. Phillip Randolph, with his radical history, or how he became the Pullman union organizer and additionally his importance in the Civil Rights Movement; he originated the March on Washington and opened it as the first speaker. Good Read!

[Emmkay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tye makes the case for the centrality of black Pullman (sleeping car) porters to the development of the black middle class, labour history, and the civil rights movement. Lots I didn't know! I found the writing a little dull but it seemed well-researched and theirs is an important and interesting story. 3.5 stars.

[Bruce · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this one up to illuminate some labor history that I've erstwhile found obscure. Nor was I disappointed. In terms of content, Larry Tye serves up more cultural than economic history. His subtitle is something of a misnomer: there is no making of a black middle class here, just exploitation of former slaves and their offspring in a way that supplants service for servitude. Pullman compelled its porters to purchase their uniforms while paying but a pittance, making their prosperity an illusion. Having said that, the uniform and mannerisms demanded by service taken in conjunction with the literacy and constant travel had positive (if unintended) side effects for porters, including the appearance of wealth and worldliness to their peers. Porters enjoyed easy, regular access to newspapers and other abandoned reading materials on their trains, and their inevitable impact as conquering heroes was likely amplified by frequent, extended absences from home.

In the George Pullman portion of the porter's story, I stumbled across another example of utopian company town building to join the likes of Hershey, and Disney, and Ford. Grandee George

began building the town in 1880, partly for reasons of engineering. Demand was soaring for sleepers, and he resolved to build the biggest railroad factory on Earth to mass-produce them…. He believed that if he created a properly healthy living space for his European craftsmen and local laborers -- one without beer gardens or Democrats, grime or labor agitators -- his workers would never lose a day to drunkenness or discontent. What he got was the largest model community ever, 3,400 acres that were, in the words of a British visitor, "another of the wonders of the West…." The architect Solon Beman wanted to name the community after himself, to which George is said to have replied, "We'll take the last half of your name and the first half of mine." And so it was: Pullman, Illinois. (pages 68-9)

Once again we have an inverse ideal, this one undone by George's conflict of interest as slum-landlord, driven to hike rents and service fees without amenities to match. And again we see a grand economic vision broken by short-term myopia. This time, it's the Depression of 1893 that proves the final straw: strikes and riots exposed the limits of Pullman's execution over and in spite of his original intent.

However, the story of Pullman, the town, isn't properly part of the story of Pullman, the porter. Neither the town nor the manufacturing branch were ever integrated. Meanwhile, upon the rails Pullman consistently played its African American porter workforce off against an exclusively white conductor staff. Porters endured imbalanced salaries more depressed than offset by tips -- somewhere out there awaits an intriguing sociological work on the origins and development of American tipping practice -- and the masters of Pullman's sleeping cars were expected to be on their feet and on call not only during waking hours but practically throughout the night. The demand was untenable, unsustainable, and nonetheless persisted for over fifty years.

A porter's work month ran as long as four hundred hours during the first half century of the Pullman Company, when schedules were relentless, monthly wages were independent of hours or miles accrued, and few porters dared complain. While all work on the road involves long hours, a porter's four hundred translated into thirteen hours a day, every day of the week…. [M]ost of his life was spent working at a pace his chattel grandparents would have found exhausting. (page 86)

Engineering teams remained likewise segregated, and the xenophobic and competitive forces fostered thereby significantly undercut the Pullman workforce as a whole, undoing several early attempts to unionize. It wasn't until the advent of the Great Depression in the late 1920's that the porters managed real mobilization. Not that their dutiful dues-paying bore much meaningful fruit in terms of reliable, reasonable hours and wages. Rather, it took a looming war and the intervention of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal administration to bring Pullman to formally recognize and accept the collective bargaining authority of the International Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. As it happened, the porters didn't help themselves by setting themselves apart, foolishly compounding their victimization by racism through their own sexism. "By 1926 there were two hundred Pullman maids, one for every fifty porters…. As taxing as a porter's life could be, maids had it tougher. Their wages and tips were lower, and they were… treated as second-class citizens by their aspiring union as well as their employer." (p. 157)

Much of the second half of the book is dedicated to a mini-biography of A. Philip Randolph, the tireless advocate for civil rights and elected leader of the Brotherhood. In Tye's portraiture, Randolph comes across as an inspirational speaker, writer, and visionary. Yet even if economic and systemic forces were ultimately responsible for the recognition of his union, he can nonetheless as its president claim credit for the success. Put it this way, at least he kept the organization aloft for the dozen or so years needed for it to serve its intended purpose.

Ironically, round about the time Randolph was securing porters' livelihood and posterity, history was conspiring to render them obsolete. First came the cars, then highways and buses. Speedier trains fostered daytime commutes, long-distance telephony provided virtual alternatives to reaching out and touching someone, and finally, cheap, domestic air flight outcompeted the overnight sleepers. Pullman cut its production and then eliminated its staff. By 1969, the Pullman Porter ceased to exist. Within another ten years, the company itself went out of business. Tye concludes his work with anecdotal reflections on porters' legacy: their distortion in popular culture as vaudevillian characters, their labor struggles that laid the groundwork for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s March on Washington and underpinned the civil rights movement, the personal inspiration and role modeling they presented their children to be well educated and hard working.

The book is chockablock with first-hand recollections and interviews. Larry Tye's research is impressive, he seems to throw at the reader every article a Google search for "porter" might surface, no matter how attenuated. Unfortunately, he clouds his throughline, shifting between chronological and thematic perspectives on the subject. Much as I discovered with Greg Grandin's Fordlandia, things bog down distinctly from 1927-1932 as Tye considers different facets of the same story, then takes off like a rocket through WWII up to the present day. I dunno, maybe in circulating around so much of the Great Depression the authors were capturing the spirit of a desultory age, but for me coming to the end of a page only to find myself repeating a year or two quickly became enervating. So as read-worthy books go, this is a bit of a dud I'm afraid. It's two-and-a-half stars, but I'm still glad I read it. Like much of history, the life of the Pullman porter turns out to be better in hindsight than in actual experience.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed learning about the importance of Pullman porters within the Black community. I discovered this book in the gift shop at Hildene, Robert Todd Lincoln’s VT home, and my interest was piqued by their Pullman car exhibit.

Especially interesting once the book got through the more biographical/historical sections on Pullman and A Philip Randolph’s union and reached the chapters on the roles of porters in popular culture and the Civil Rights Movement.

[Jeffery James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read and interesting history of a lesser known aspect of the civil rights struggle. Does a good job of footnoting and citation while maintaining the breezy prose of a non-academic work.

[Anneliese White · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was slow to read for me because it is so informationally dense, but it is well written and it’s a part of history I had no clue about but enjoyed learning about. In terms of recommending it to others, it would have to be someone interested in social histories. I appreciate Tye’s thoroughness and skilled research to bring this topic to light.

[Emily M · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was well researched and taught me a lot that I hadn't known about the author claims is really the foundation of the Civil Rights movement. This is an important story to tell. However, I am picky about the organization of my nonfiction books, and this was sortof organized chronologically, but then would jump around with the same typed of stories and details showing up in multiple chapters. It took me months to finish, largely because I would read a chapter and feel like I had already encountered most of this information in the previous one. The first couple chapters and the end ones on Randolph and the beginnings of the Civil Rights movement were more compelling because they had new information. While I did learn a lot, this one is not one I'm going to hand off to my kids for our studies on segregation and 20th century race relations. I feel like the author might have overreached in scope, and a more focused examination of one place or person might be a more compelling read for a junior high reader.

[Steven Freeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding story of the role of the Pullman Porters in both the civil rights movement and the labor movement. A critical read about an important part of American history. Their sacrifices are mostly forgotten, but their impact on generations of African Americans (and workers in general) is significant.

[Dre Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up a copy while visiting Pullman NHP last October. Glad I did. This book not only provides historical context for Porters, it also pays homage to the brilliant A Phillip Randolph.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some months ago, several of my friends from my Red Hat group went to a train museum in Kentucky. It was a really fun day and while we were there we watched a short film about the Pullman Porters who took care of the sleeper cars and their occupants...treating them to a luxurious experience while traveling. Being a porter was an enviable job and basically led to a more middle class life for those who stayed with the job. Unfortunately, maintaining the job also meant taking much abuse from the wealthy white passengers who called almost all the porters "George" (since they worked for George Pullman) and expected them to perform any chore at any time of the day or night. The book was really fascinating to me, with the exception of the chapter regarding unionizing (or at least trying to) and even it was interesting enough that I read every bit of it!

[Stan · Rating 3 out of 5]

My knock on this book is that toward the end it became slow and somewhat repetitive. But the main thrust of the book, describing what it meant to be a Pullman Porter, was eye-opening and fascinating. In hiring black porters meant to be anonymous and subservient, at low wages and with abuse and humiliation constantly reinforcing their second-class status, Pullman's strategy in fact had the unintended effect of empowering generations of blacks, elevating their financial standings, giving them a leg up, allowing them to position their children and grandchildren to achieve higher education and success in careers ranging from business to government to medicine to art. And the efforts to unionize the porters served as a precursor to later broader movements for civil rights of black Americans.

[iwillbitethesun · Rating 5 out of 5]

I honestly loved this book. It was part of the reading material for an internship I had and I was so engrossed by the story that I went out and brought a personal copy. Working at the historic Pullman Company was better than I could’ve ever imagined. Learning about the company town and the inhabitants was just amazing, but what the story of the porters really touched my heart. Being a porter was the opportunity of a lifetime for African American at the time, a chance to set themselves and their families up for success. Hearing about the disadvantages they faced and how they were seemingly kept out of the important decisions making, but we never discouraged from making a union of their own brought me so much joy. Asa Philip Randolph was just the person they needed at a time like this. A voice for the voiceless

[Jwt Jan50 · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are some outstanding and thorough 4/5* reviews here with which I concur. Read this in parallel with Sandweiss' 'Passing Strange' and volume 1 of Lewis' biography of Du Bois. Lots of overlap and a variety of perspectives. Long, hard and varied struggle. Definitely encourage readers to cover the 'Acknowledgements' for this one as he details just what a collective effort it was to bring this to publication. The chapters are a bit long and perhaps a little challenging for those who read less nonfiction, but worth the effort. My suspicion is that not all porters were as successful in their family lives as those noted by the author and that there were many varied paths to the African American middle class. Lots of 'tbr' possibilities in the bibliography.

[Russ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very informative and interesting read on a part of the American experience I didn't know much about. Honestly before seeing a video that referenced this book I didn't know anything about the Pullman Porters. I think the book does a good job of demonstrating the impact on society that these men have had and the sacrifices they made to create a good life for their families.

If I had one knock on the book is that the author on a number of occasions mentioned Republicans by party affiliation specifically but really glazes over the Democratic involvement in Jim Crow and the segregated south.

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Oral History Of The Pullman Porters!

A well written, well researched history of the Pullman Company and more specifically, the Pullman Porters. Most interesting is how the Pullman Porters served as conveyors of the news via there travels from city to city, especially in the South and how integral their union and its leaders provided the base for the a Civil Rights movement. The last chapter of the book provides an excellent overview of the legacy of the Pullman Porters.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written and insightful, although it spends too much time on civil rights leader and pioneer A. Philip Randolph - a subject no doubt deserving its own book. The Pullman Porter was the connective tissue of the Black community, passing information, inspiration along as well as union pamphlets and activist literature. I wished the author spent more time profiling the outsized number of children and families that benefited having a Pullman Porter in their family.

[Gerry Connolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rising from the Rails is Larry Tye's account of the Pullman porters. Over 100 years these black workers transformed train service, established a middle class, organized a union and won recognition after a decade long fight. A Philip Randolph used his perch as Brotherhood President to launch the civil rights movement. A story of hardship, endurance and triumph. The Pullman porters' legacy was profound

[Ken Frankel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished reading this book on Juneteenth. The author, Larry Tye, thoroughly investigated facts from archives and from the last of the remaining porters to witness the strength of the push towards equality using the shoe horn of working as a Porter for George Pullman amidst the segregation that was accepted by society in uncompromising terms, at first, but slowly, slowly, a community spoke up for itself and prevailed.

[Christopher Geraghty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had no idea of the important role the Pullman Porters played in the civil rights movement until I read this book. My wife and I visited Hildene, the Lincoln Family Home in Manchester, Vermont. While there, I stopped at the Pullman Car, Sunbeam and Many Voices exhibit where the docent mentioned this book. The gift shop didn't have a copy, so I bought a copy at the nearby Northshire Bookstore and I am glad I did. This is a great book that I highly recommend.

[Brian Skinner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is quite interesting. It was a hard life for these porters but the travel and meeting new people really helped them in ways other than getting money. That does not excuse the low amount that they were paid though.

I wanted to hear the experiences of more of these porters but halfway through it shifted over to talking about politics. Frankly I can read about that in other books. That is why I took off one star.

[Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 due to the importance and rarity of the subject matter. This book is a bit more traditional/academic nonfiction then I gravitate toward; I prefer non-fiction that reads more like fiction. But I learned a lot about the Pullman porters, their history, their experiences, and their legacy in civil rights, economic upward mobility, etc. I would have liked more personal stories about individual porters.

[Carol Rucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fascinating because it's shares important civil rights history that rarely surfaces. The author went into details that show clearly how Pullman porters laid the groundwork for subsequent civil rights battles.

I gave it a 4 instead of a 5 because, at times, it felt like I was reading a history resource. The reading became tedious at times but I stuck with it because I learned so much.

[Emily Meacham · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book on the fascinating word of the Pullman porters. I did not realize how much many of them were heavily involved in the Civil Rights movement. And how many of them were the ancestors of our leaders and educators today. And it was a welcome, albeit sad, coincidence that John Lewis is mentioned several times, and he died while I was reading this book. Highly recommended.