Miles of Smiles, Years of Struggle
Stories of Black Pullman Porters
Awards and Recognition:
A publication of the American Folklore Society
As service workers in a luxurious sleeping-car train system, Pullman porters had both the highest status in the black community and the lowest rank on the train. They were trapped in the dual roles of charming host and obedient servant, and their constant smiles--even in the face of unreasonable demands by white passengers--were part of the job requirement.
Jack Santino's interviews with retired porters provide extensive firsthand accounts of their work, the job inequities they faced, the formation of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and the aborted Pullman porter strike of 1928. Through the testimony of ran-and-file workers as well as key figures such as E. D. Nixon, the porter who initiated the Montgomery bus boycott and helped launch the career of Martin Luther King, Jr. and C.L. Dellums, the only surviving founding member of the BSCP, Miles of Smiles, Years of Struggle illuminates the Pullman porters' struggle for dignity.
A publication of the American Folklore Society
A volume in the series Folklore and Society
To order online:
http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/43phs8es9780252061943.html
To order by phone:
(800) 621-2736 (USA/Canada)
(773) 702-7000 (International)
Related Titles
Changing Social Landscapes in Middle America
Edited by Linda Allegro and Andrew Grant Wood
Youth Civic Engagement in the Americas
Maria de los Angeles Torres, Irene Rizzini, and Norma Del Río
Anarchism, Antiauthoritarianism, and the Left in Puerto Rico, 1897-1921
Kirwin R. Shaffer
Edited by Nilda Flores-González, Anna Romina Guevarra, Maura Toro-Morn, and Grace Chang
David Whiteis
