Sleeping Car and the Porters that worked on them

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Sleeping Car and the Porters that worked on them
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What is a sleeping car?

• The sleeping car or sleeper is a railroad
  passenger car that can accommodate all its
  passengers in beds of one kind or another,
  primarily for the purpose of making nighttime
  travel more restful.

Have you ever watched Harry Potter? Ron,
Hermione, and Harry ride on a train that is
similar to a sleeping car.
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What a sleeping car room looks like
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• The first such cars saw use on American railroads
  in the 1830s and could be configured for coach
  seating during the day. Some of the more
  luxurious types have private rooms, that is to
  say fully- and solidly-enclosed rooms that are
  not shared with strangers.

Coach Seating
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What is a porter?

• A porter worked various jobs on the sleeping car.
  Porters were usually African Americans.
• In the 1920s, the Pullman Company was the largest
  single employer of African American men. From the
  1870s through the 1960s, tens of thousands worked
  for Pullman as sleeping-car porters.

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What did a porter do?

• The feeling of sleeping-car luxury came from the
  porter. He made down berths at night and made
  up the berths into seating in the morning,
  helped with luggage, and answered passengers
  calls at any hour.
• Berths beds

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How many hours did he work?

• Working 400 hours a month, porters earned better
  wages than most African Americans, but degrading
  conditions helped lead to the founding of the
  Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925.
  The Heater Baker League was one of those unions.
• Degrading poor, bad

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Remember

• At this time, African Americans were still
  considered inferior and not allowed to mix with
  whites.
• There were many ways in which blacks were
  segregated, one of which had to do with blankets
  used on the sleeping cars
• Inferior not as good, lower

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• This blanket was used by African American
  railroad porters. According to Pullman service
  rules, a porters blanket was never to be given
  to a passenger. This was to comply with statutes
  in the south that dealt with the segregation of
  blacks and whites. Dyeing the color blue made it
  easy to tell which blankets were passengers and
  which blankets were the porters.

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Respond

• Write a paragraph about what you now know about
  porters and sleeping cars.