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Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP)

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Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2016

Raymond Gavins
Raymond Gavins
Affiliation:
Duke University, North Carolina
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Summary

Founded in 1925 by A. Philip Randolph, the first president, BSCP organized men who assisted passengers for the Pullman Palace Car Company, America's largest employer of blacks. It was the first black union to receive a charter in the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Early on, with just 1,900 of 10,000 porters joining, BSCP endured a company backlash and internal fears. But its AFL membership and NAACP endorsement provided crucial support. That, alongside the Railway Labor Act (1934), compelled Pullman to recognize the porters’ right to organize and bargain collectively in 1937.

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The Cambridge Guide to African American History , pp. 43
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2016

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References

Bates, Beth Tompkins. Pullman Porters and the Rise of Protest Politics in Black America, 1925–1945. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
Tye, Larry. Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class. New York: Henry Holt, 2004.

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