Black REALstory Series: The Pullman Porters
Feb 18, 2021
Swag!!! Drip!!! Black Excellence!! All of that!! Seriously, the Pullman Porters were everything!!
You've seen them! They were in films and in a lot of the media that included train rides and sleeping cars... in the background. Looking Fiiiine!!
The Pullman Porters were all Black men who worked on the sleeping cars after the civil war when the train industry took off.
The first Pullman Porters were all previously enslaved men.
(Yep! Read that again!)
The first Pullman Porters were ALL PREVIOUSLY ENSLAVED MEN. They dressed immaculately. They entertained. They served..and they were paid poorly and often treated poorly by sleeping car occupants.
However...
The Pullman Porters also had better jobs than other Black men. And, they used that to help All Black People. They were also traveling all over the country and given an opportunity to observe the white upper class.
And this is how they helped many other Black people to rise economically into a newly formed Black Middle Class.
Read more below:
There is no such job as a "Pullman Porter" anymore, in fact Black Porters stopped using the term "Pullman Porter,' because "Pullman" was the last name of "George Pullman," who was the White man who hired them...and he was not their "master."
But...the legacy!!! I stan! I stan! I stan!!
I'm Gahmya!
pronounced "Juh-me-yuh"
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