Editing Pullman porter (section)

==Unionization==
[[Image:Abraham Lincoln Pullman Car.png|thumb|Abraham Lincoln Pullman sleeper car{{snd}}each car received a name.]]
[[File:Pullman sleeping car circa 1860s.JPG|thumb|[[William Crooks (locomotive)|William Crooks locomotive]] sleeping car, on display in Duluth, Minnesota]]

As early as 1900, Porters started to rally and organize for better wages and treatment. Porters who worked an average of 300-400 hours per month, were paid a fixed monthly wage regardless of hours or length of trips.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last=Tye |first=Larry |title=Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class |publisher=Henry Holt |year=2005 |location=New York City |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q5ze8C9C3v8C&q=garrard+wilson |pages=75–112 |isbn=978-0-8050-7850-3}}</ref> They were also subjected to easy dismissal or termination based on minor or false accusations by mainly white passengers. Initial efforts were largely unsuccessful and also increased risk of retributory termination for attempting to unionize.<ref name=":0" />

The [[Order of Sleeping Car Conductors]] was organized on February 20, 1918, in [[Kansas City, Missouri]]. Members had to be white males;<ref>{{cite book| pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_iCGWrdBpT_8C/page/n267 252]–253| last=Stewart| first=Estelle May| title=Handbook of American trade-unions: 1936 edition| url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_iCGWrdBpT_8C| access-date=2013-08-07| year=1936| publisher=U. S. Govt. Print. Off. for the United States. Bureau of Labor Statistics}}</ref> because the order did not admit Black people, [[A. Philip Randolph]] began organizing the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.<ref>{{cite web|ref={{harvid|Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters: Windsor Mosaic}}|url=http://www.windsor-communities.com/african-labour-brotherhood.php|title=Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters|work=Windsor Mosaic Website|access-date=2013-08-07|archive-date=2012-02-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120217164059/http://www.windsor-communities.com/african-labour-brotherhood.php|url-status=live}}</ref> Using the motto "Fight or Be Slaves", on August 25, 1925, 500 porters met in Harlem and decided to make an effort to organize. Under Randolph's leadership the first black union, the [[Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters]], was formed and slowly working conditions and salaries improved.

By forming the first black labor union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Pullman porters also laid the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement, which began in the 1950s. Union organizer and former Pullman porter [[E. D. Nixon]] played a crucial role in organizing the landmark [[Montgomery bus boycott]] in [[Montgomery, Alabama|Alabama]] in 1955. It was he who bailed [[Rosa Parks]] out of jail after she refused to move on the bus, and who selected her as the figure to build the boycott around.<ref name="blogspot1"/>

By the 1960s, between the decline of the passenger rail system and the cultural shifts in American society, the Pullman porters' contribution became obscured, becoming for some in the African-American community a symbol of subservience to white cultural and economic domination.<ref name=autogenerated1/>

In 1978, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters merged with the larger [[Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks]].<ref>{{cite web| title=Miles of Smiles About Pullman Porters| url=http://www.paulwagnerfilms.com/miles-of-smiles-about-porters/| access-date=2021-08-15| website=Paul Wagner Films| language=en| archive-date=2021-02-13| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213114105/http://www.paulwagnerfilms.com/miles-of-smiles-about-porters/| url-status=live}}</ref>