More than 100 years ago, emancipated slaves and their descendants left the rural South in search of a better life. Many men left agriculture behind for jobs as porters on the nation’s earliest passenger trains.

Scholar Lyn Hughes founded the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum as a tribute to the first generation of African American men to leave brutally repressive sharecropping practices behind. As she will explain, these men ultimately formed the first black labor union in America in 1925. In so doing, they won an early battle in the epic 20th century struggle for racial equality which African Americans fought and won.
On your show she will discuss:

• The obstacles which African American Pullman porters faced.

• The Pullman porters’ self-imposed standard of excellence, which helped set the standard for the hospitality industry.

• Famous African Americans who began their careers as Pullman porters, including Malcolm X and U. S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and famous descendants of Pullman porters, including Whoopi Goldberg and media mogul Tom Joyner.

• How listeners may submit the name of a friend or family member for inclusion in The Pullman Porters National Historic Registry of African American Railroad Employees.

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CREDENTIALS: Lyn Hughes is the author of AN ANTHOLOGY OF RESPECT: The Pullman Porters National Historic Registry of African American Railroad Employees. A cultural activist and doctoral candidate, she is the founder of Chicago’s A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum.

AVAILABILITY: Chicago, IL, nationwide by arrangement and via telephone
CONTACT: Lyn Hughes, (773) 457-2589 (IL); cultrlentrepreneur@sbcglobal.net; www.anthologyofrespect.com