This is a multi-source lesson with three different sources. The first and second are primary sources: an advertisement for the Pullman Company and an employee card for a Pullman porter from the Pullman Collection. The third is a secondary source: an encyclopedia entry about the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters from the Encyclopedia of Chicago.

This lesson is for a teacher-controlled class. If you would like your students to work with the source independently or in small groups, there is a link above for the Student Worksheet.

With more advanced students, present the excerpts without any background and allow students to discover everything they can from the primary source and, possibly, their own research. For less advanced students, share the background material.

Background

George Pullman began making luxury railroad cars in the 1850s. By the late 1860s he had founded the Pullman Palace Car Company, which—as the name implies—produced luxury dining, lounge and sleeping cars. By the late 19^th century the name was changed to the Pullman Company.

Pullman hired African Americans to work as porters, maids, and laundresses. Generally, African Americans were barred by the railroad trades from working as engineers or maintenance workers. They also couldn’t serve as conductors. However, Pullman was credited by many in the community for hiring African Americans in large numbers and for paying a decent wage. According to the Pullman Museum, by 1920 Pullman was the second largest employer of African Americans in the United States.

Pullman porters were among the elite of the African American urban middle class with jobs that provided stability and prestige. They were a group of workers emblematic of the Great Migration. At the same time, a porter’s work could be incredibly difficult. Much of their income came from tips, and they were not paid for setting and cleaning up duties. They had to pay for their own food, lodging, and uniforms as well as reimburse the company for any items stolen by passengers. They regularly faced discrimination from customers and were often called “George” after the company founder, rather than their own names.

Source 1–Primary Source–Advertisement

Display the first source. Initially display it without a caption and engage students in an exploration of the source without providing any background or caption information to prompt students’ curiosity and develop their inquiry skills.

Strategy 1: Decide what you’re looking at.

Display the source and ask: What is this? (an advertisement) Next, if appropriate for your students’ age group and development level, ask whether it is a primary source. Alternately, you might want to provide your students the answer. If so, explain why it’s a primary source. (While it is not an eyewitness account of something, it is an artifact from a particular time period that can serve as an original source of information about opinions and attitudes in the time period concerning the topic.)

Strategy 4: Examine closely the source itself.

Ask students to examine the source and in detail, individually, in small groups or as a class.

What or who is this source about? What does it show?

Give students time to look at/read the source and then have them write down everything thing they can about it. Accept a variety of answers and detail.

Do you have an idea about when this was created? How do you know?
If necessary, lead students and point out the subject matter of the ad—the benefits of a Pullman sleeping car—and ask Do people often travel by train today? Do they often sleep in a sleeping car? Have you ever heard of a Pullman sleeper? What can this tell you about when this ad was created? Would you need to find more information to determine when the ad was created?

Strategy 2: Determine the purpose and audience.

Ask: What was the purpose of this item and who was it created for? (Purpose was to sell people on traveling in a Pullman sleeper, made for train travelers—typically more well-off travelers)

Strategy 5: Find more information.

Only after students have examined the image by itself, with no additional information, display or read the caption: “Pullman advertisement from National Geographic, 1948 (Bill Howes Collection) From Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class by Larry Tye (New York: Henry Holt, 2004. Newberry Library book.”

Ask: What does the caption tell you about the source? (The caption tells when and where the advertisement was published—National Geographic, 1948—and what source book the image was found in.)
Ask: Does this change what you think about the source? (Student answers will vary. Students might note that knowing when the image was first published helps them understand it better. Others might note that finding out that the image was used in a book about Pullman porters makes them pay more attention to the section of the ad about the Pullman porter. Some might argue that the caption does not change their perception at all.)

Discuss with the class whether their initial perceptions about the source were correct. You may want to review the Mini-Lesson: Reading Captions [link TK].

Strategy 3: Look for Bias

If students haven’t introduced the subject themselves, explore the way the figures in the ad are depicted as well as the gender and race roles. Discuss whether any of these elements shows bias. (Bias is a tricky subject. Accept a variety of answers but ask that students provide evidence from within the source to support their conclusions. Some students might point out that no women are depicted in a role other than cleaner or laundress and the African Americans depicted are all in domestic positions and argue that this show bias. Other students might argue that none of the depictions is insulting or less respectful than the others and that this shows the ad isn’t biased, although the hiring practices of the Pullman Company might have been.)

Strategy 6: Consider your own role in the interaction

Introduce students to the idea that everyone brings their own experience, background knowledge, and biases to how they interpret a source. Ask a series of questions to help students identify what they bring to their examination of the source:

What do you know about life in the United States in the late 1940s and the 1950s?
Have you studied Jim Crow and segregation in class?

Have you ever heard of the Pullman Porters? Have you ever heard of Pullman maids?

Finally, help students use this source to begin thinking like a historian and to begin a larger inquiry. Ask: What is at least one question the source makes you think of? Have students note their question or write students’ questions on the board.

Source 2 – Primary Source – Business Record

After the class has examined and reviewed, come to conclusions and generated questions about the first source, display the second source. Again, initially display the source without a caption. Point out that historians never look at only one source, but that they examine a variety of sources.

Strategies 4 and 1: Examine closely the source itself and decide what you’re looking at.

Hand out or display the image. Give students time individually, with partners, or in groups to examine its details and write down their conclusions about what they are looking at.

It is possible that students will require some time to examine, make inferences, and come to conclusions about the source. If necessary, lead students through the document. Point out these words on the form: “Porter” “Age” and “Service Record.” Ask students what these words tell them about the document.
Then point out “Eugene Whitted,” the phrase “age 32,” and the earliest date on the card, in the upper left under “Employed Date” showing that this is an employment card for a man named Eugene Whitted, who was 32 when he began working for the Pullman Company in 1912. Ask students to look at the words under “Assignment District” and help them conclude that Whitted worked out of the Seattle district. Or explain that this is an employee card, describe such a card, and then explore the details of the card with students.

Go further into the document by asking students to read or by helping them decipher the text under “Remarks” on the right side of the card.

The transcription of these remarks is:

xDissatisfied with his position  Expressed himself in writing, same also reaching a S. Francisco newspaper

Not to be re-employed          See application
5/28/21 still active in attempt to organize railroad employees as shown by article appearing in Seattle weekly paper. 

                                  See appl.

                      Radical

Depending upon the sophistication of your students you might want to have them read or read to them the information at the bottom of the card: A notation in February 1920 records that Whitted is accused of stealing a watch and cash [$205.00]. The card says he was caught and prosecuted. In July 1920, he was still working for the company and found and turned in a billfold [wallet] containing $10.00.

Ask: What does “organize railroad employees mean”? What does “Radical” mean? (Students might not know the answer to these questions. If not, do not provide the answer [yet]. Have students write down their questions to see if they can be answered by another source in the lesson, or their own research.)

Strategy 2: Determine the purpose and audience.

Now that students have examined the source, display the caption: “Employment card. Eugene R. Whitted. Employee Service Records, Pullman Employee Records, Pullman Co. Collection, Newberry Library.”

Ask: What is this item? What was its purpose and who was it created for? (It is an employee card with employee history for the managers of the company.)

Ask: Does the caption give you new information about the source? Is that information important in order to understand the source? Is it helpful in other ways? (If students have deciphered the source during the close examination, they might conclude that the caption doesn’t give them any new information, but they should be aware or be made aware that the caption does provide information on where the source came from [the Newberry] and why that is important [They know where to find the original of the card or where to find more employee cards.])

Strategy 3: Look for Bias

Discuss whether there is any evidence of bias. Ask: What does this card show about the company’s attitude toward unions? (Help students link the fact that the card says “not to be re-employed” to his activities and how or whether this shows bias.)

Strategy 7: Compare a variety of sources.

Ask: How does this source relate to the first source? (This source connects to the Pullman porters in the previous source.)

Strategy 5: Find more information.

Ask: Does this source answer any of your questions? Does it raise new ones? What are they? Where could you look to get answers to your questions? (Responses will vary. If students focused on the Pullman porter in the earlier source, then this might partially answer a question about what their jobs and lives were like. Questions raised by this source could ask what happened to Eugene Whitted, what his life was like, what the words “organizing” and “radical” mean, among others)

Source 3 – Secondary Source – Encyclopedia Entry

After the class has examined the second source, have them read the third source, an encyclopedia entry on the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

Strategies 1 & 2: Decide what you’re looking at. Determine the purpose and audience.

Ask: What was the purpose of this text and who has it been created for? (Secondary source to explain the basic history of the union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids. The source has been created for the general public)

Strategy 4: Examine closely the source itself.

What is the main idea of this text? (The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was an important union for African Americans)

Strategy 7: Compare a variety of sources.

How does this source relate to the other sources presented here? (The source is about Pullman porters and shows that they successfully unionized. All the other sources show Pullman porters at work or as workers.)

Does this source answer any of your questions? Does it raise new ones? What are they? (Responses will vary. For some students, the source might explain the importance of Pullman porters in the African American community, it might answer questions about “organizing” and “radical” in the second source. New questions for students might include the role of women in the union and in the workforce or how the union influenced the civil right movement.)

Extension Activities 

Ask students to think about all the sources in this lesson and the picture they painted. Discuss with students what element of the lesson most captured their interest. Were all their questions answered? Where could they find information for their unanswered questions? What new information would they like to discover? Where could they look to find that information? (Responses will vary. Students might want to explore the working conditions for the porters and maids, learn more about the union or the influence of porters in the community. They might want to pursue why the Chicago Defender was banned or the effect of its distribution on people in the South. Students should identify that they can look on the internet, in online databases at the local public library, in the books mentioned in the captions, and elsewhere for more information.)

• Have students research other employee cards from the Pullman Collection at the Newberry and report back to the class on the work lives of the people they found.
• Have students find oral histories of Pullman porters and write a short essay on how the oral histories added to their understanding.
• Contact the Newberry to see if Eugene Whitted’s application is part of the collection and see if they can obtain a copy.
• Do online research (including via the U.S. census) to find out more about Eugene Whitted’s life before, during, and after he was employed as a porter.

Further Resources at the Newberry Library (not digitized)

Employee indexes and registers, 1875-1946. Pullman Company. Personnel Administration Dept.; Pullman’s Palace Car Company. 1875 – 1946.

The Pullman porters’ review. Pullman Porters’ Benefit Association of America.; Pullman Porters’ Publishing Company. 1913 – 1921

Pullman news indexes and article transcripts, 1922-1947. Pullman Company, creator.; Midwest Manuscript Collection (Newberry Library); Newberry Library. 1922-1947

Tye, Larry. Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class.

Additional Resources on the Internet

“The Pullman Porter,” in “Labor and Race Relations” on Pullman Museum site

“The Pullman Story, Part 2” on National Park Service site