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The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters: The Civil Rights Movement

Brown, Nicholas David
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1430166476

Abstract Details

2015, Master of Arts, University of Toledo, History.
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was an African American union which was organized in 1925 by A. Philip Randolph, Milton P. Webster, Edward Daniel Nixon, and other porters. Randolph formed this union to deal with the plights of black porters who worked for the Pullman Company. The union treated these men like slaves, forcing them to work long hours, subjected them to discrimination and racism, and gave them no voice to deal with these issues. The BSCP worked to resolve these problems and improve working conditions. The Brotherhood succeeded in these goals by being granted a charter to the AFL in 1935, becoming the first black union to be accepted into a white organization. Two years later in 1937 the BSCP signed a collective bargaining agreement with the Pullman Company, giving the workers shorter hours, higher wages, and better working conditions. Brotherhood members utilized direct action, mass pressure, the media, and mass demonstration to force the Federal Government to act. These strategies and tactics were learned while working in the union and directly influenced the civil rights movement. The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters brought and used these tactics in the threat to march on Washington in 1941, work with the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC), and the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955. A. Philip Randolph and the Brotherhood force President Franklin Roosevelt into signing Executive Order 8802 which aimed at eradicating discriminatory hiring practices utilized in the defense industry. The order created the FEPC, which worked towards obtaining jobs for African Americans. The Brotherhood worked directly with the FECP through the March on Washington Movement in order to gain access to the defense industry for blacks in the United States. E.D. Nixon, a porter, helped orchestrate the Montgomery Bus Boycott and worked towards ending segregation on busses. The members of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters took what they learned for the union and gave their financial support, knowledge, strategies, tactics, and work to these three civil rights events.
Todd Michney (Committee Chair)
Kim Nielsen (Committee Member)
Ami Pflugrad-Jackisch (Committee Member)
106 p.
History

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Brown, N. D. (2015). The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters: The Civil Rights Movement [Master's thesis, University of Toledo]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1430166476

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Brown, Nicholas. The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters: The Civil Rights Movement. 2015. University of Toledo, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1430166476.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Brown, Nicholas. "The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters: The Civil Rights Movement." Master's thesis, University of Toledo, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1430166476

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

toledo1430166476
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This open access ETD is published by University of Toledo and OhioLINK.