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

Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class
ISBN-10
0805078509
ISBN-13
9780805078503
Category
Business & Economics
Pages
356
Language
English
Published
2005-06
Publisher
Macmillan
Author
Larry Tye

Description

"A valuable window into a long-underreported dimension of African American history."--Newsday 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. - Named a Recommended Book by The Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, and The Seattle Times

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