- [Narrator] Coming up.

(dramatic instrumental music) - [Bob] Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves and George Pullman hired them.

- [Narrator] A titan of industry made a name for himself.

- On the Pullman car, you were treated like royalty.

- [Narrator] He built a town and named it after himself.

- He hoped that it would be capitalism helping labor while labor helps capitalism.

- [Narrator] But when Pullman's business took a hit, so did workers' wages and they staged a revolt.

- People were tipping over rail equipment, setting them on fire.

People lost their lives over this situation.

- It stands out as the most dominant case of the use of military intervention to crush a labor union.

- [Narrator] But some black Pullman workers were gearing up for an even bigger fight.

- Black people make a way where there is no way.

- [Narrator] Leaving an indelible mark on American history as we know it.

- [Cornelius] Without the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, there probably would be no modern Civil Rights Movement.

- [Narrator] "Pullman and the Railroad Rebellion" next on "Chicago Stories."

(dramatic instrumental music) (Oscar sighing) - This hat, as I look at it today, chills come within my arms because my dad was a very classy man.

He cherished the uniform of the Pullman Porters.

It represent being able to get from segregation and where people respect you.

That's the word, respect because if someone see that you are very well-trained, well-spoken and well-dressed, that goes a long way.

That's what this hat meant.

(dramatic music) (bell ringing) - [Narrator] The Pullman Porters road the rails in crisp suits, shined shoes and a smile offering luxury with a personal touch.

But behind the uniform were stories of great struggle because all that glittered in this Gilded Age was not gold.

Chicago in the late 1800s, a time when industry was booming.

Hundreds of thousands of people flocked here looking for work and a fresh start.

- Chicago was the fastest growing city in the world, certainly in the United States.

- The stockyards were here, the steel mills were here, the railroads came here.

- [Narrator] It was fertile ground for a local civil engineer, 26-year-old George Pullman.

- George Pullman was a self-made man.

He grew up with his family in the state of New York and got into the business of moving some buildings for the Erie Canal and that was a fortuitous moment for Mr. Pullman because that trade brought him to Chicago.

- [Narrator] Back then, Chicago was a swamp.

The mud in the streets was deep enough to drown a horse.

Pullman was hired to lift multi-storied buildings a half dozen feet above a new sewer system, sometimes while the people remained inside.

He was making a name for himself.

- [Sue] He was a shrewd businessman, was sincere and hard-working and so people believed in him.

- [Narrator] By 1860, 11 rail lines crossed through the city of Chicago.

- [Sue] This was the place to be if you wanted to capitalize on rail and transportation.

This was an economic engine that was just exploding here in Chicago.

- [Narrator] George Pullman seized the opportunity.

- [Sue] George Pullman was fascinated with improving rail efficiency and passenger comfort.

- [Narrator] Until this time, overnight travel on the railroad was unpleasant and cramped.

- Rail travel was very uncomfortable, so he got this idea of making a car that could be a day coach during the day and at night be made into berths that people could sleep in.

- And at the time there were luxurious hotels and Mr. Pullman thought that creating a luxurious hotel experience on his rail cars with exceptional service would corner the market and he could be successful.

- [Narrator] In 1858, 27-year-old George Pullman launched his business.

He would ultimately name it Pullman's Palace Car Company.

It built sleeping cars, a comfortable and luxurious way to travel long distance.

- [Sue] The Pullman Palace car was beautiful inside.

Let's start with a beautiful polished wood, the Pullman Palace cars had luxurious deep carpet.

Your eye might be drawn up to the gas lamps and lanterns that were inside the car.

So everything about the car said you're in a plush hotel on wheels.

- [Narrator] Pullman would lease his cars to the various railroads calling it "luxury for the middle class."

Well into the 20th century, the company's logo showed perhaps its greatest asset, the black porter.

- On the Pullman car, you were treated like royalty.

The porters might have to take linen to the people living in a sleeping car.

They would have to use a berth key in order to make the bed come out for the sleeping car.

- [Narrator] Alongside the team of porters often came a Pullman maid.

- On the train, the Pullman maid was responsible for greeting women passengers and their children to get them set up.

The maid would then be tasked with the responsibility of taking care of the children.

And then they would also provide manicures, hair care and help them to dress.

But the maids were not as prevalent as the porters because there would be only one maid per train and only on the deluxe or cross-country trains.

- [Narrator] George Pullman hired recently freed slaves and their descendants.

On Pullman sleeping cars, the team of black porters and maids catered to passengers' every whim.

- Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves and George Pullman hired them.

He thought that a class of ex-slaves would make the most deferential porters on his cars.

- It certainly shaped the way in which passengers understood their interactions with porters and maids and that very deeply rooted kind of Antebellum racial sensibility.

That's for sure.

- While the rigid Jim Crow system that existed in the South didn't exist here, there were still limits to just how far they can go.

- [Narrator] After Abraham Lincoln's assassination in 1865, a train carried the President's body from Washington D.C. to Springfield, Illinois.

Behind the funeral procession, a Pullman sleeping car offered comfortable quarters for several dignitaries.

- It got a lot of press and media attention.

People started to pay more attention nationally to this beautiful car that Mr. Pullman had created and built.

- [Narrator] New orders came pouring in and by 1879, the company had 464 cars for lease and gross annual earnings of $2.2 million.

In today's money that would be more than $65 million.

As production grew, so did Pullman's workforce: draftsmen, carpenters, painters and more.

- Most of the factory jobs were held by the Southern and Eastern European immigrants.

- It is a job that demands extensive hours.

There's no such thing as a day off.

Railroad captains of industry really are demigods and we have this incredible polarization between the extremely wealthy and workers who are producing all of this wealth but don't have any means whatsoever to gain control of some of it.

And, as a result, they live in squalor, they work in dangerous conditions and they're bereft of any political power.

- [Narrator] George Pullman claimed to do as much for labor as any man living and said he tried to treat his men squarely.

In exchange, he expected loyalty.

- Pullman, along with other industrialists at the time had a concern about keeping their workers in the workplace.

So maybe we have to pay them a little bit more 'cause we want them to come back.

Maybe we don't want to kill them in the workplace, 'cause we want them to come back.

Maybe we don't want them living in squalor where they could suffer disease 'cause we want them to come back.

- [Narrator] In 1880, George Pullman bought 4,000 acres just south of Chicago and established a company town where his white employees both lived and worked.

He named the town: Pullman.

- He hoped that it would be capitalism helping labor while labor helps capitalism.

- [Narrator] Pullman's vision: a capitalist utopia where everything a worker might need from housing to goods and services sat right within the town's borders.

- The company itself actually had no restriction to race who would live in the town of Pullman but let's face it, there were societal limitations based on race.

Predominant workforce that were doing the manufacturing were mostly white workers and so that was the bulk of the residents here in the manufacturing town.

- [Narrator] Porters and maids lived closer to the rail lines in neighborhoods like Bronzeville.

- [Sue] So George Pullman built very comfortable, luxurious homes for the time.

The workers could rent them from the company and it was an opportunity for workers to sort of improve their lives.

- So behind me is a good example of the row houses that were built here.

These houses would have belonged to skilled workers and managers.

- [Sue] They had their own running water inside.

- [Larry] That was unusual except for well-to-do people.

- [Sue] That, plus the gas lighting, they washed the macadam streets every day.

They picked up the trash.

It really was an uplift for many of the workers from the kind of living situations that they had before.

- [Narrator] Not only was it good for workers, it was also good for business.

- [Larry] It was his town.

He collected rent.

He grew the food that people bought, the shopping center, the arcade, everything there went into the profit, including the church rent.

- [Narrator] For the first 13 years, it ran like a well-oiled machine.

At its height, the town of Pullman housed a total of 12,000 workers and their families.

Pullman's heavy hand had a far reach from the books in the library to goods in the grocery.

- [Larry] On the surface, everything is beautiful and clean.

People from the outside would come here and think of this as an ideal community.

- The idea behind a town that he constructs in his own name is really about control.

It's about making workers dependent and expecting full loyalty.

- [Narrator] Behind the facade of brick and mortar, Pullman's workers were facing major hardship.

By late 1893, 13 years after the town was founded, a financial panic had gripped the country and George Pullman was feeling the pinch.

- As the contracts for new cars dry up, Pullman starts laying off workers.

And they laid off huge numbers.

- [Narrator] Pullman was in a tight spot.

He had guaranteed his investors a 6% net profit each year.

So to protect his bottom line, Pullman slashed wages by 25% but workers' rent stayed the same.

- You know, you think about it today, would a landlord today reduce rent if there was an economic depression?

No.

The difference here with the Pullman Company was the company was both the employer and the landlord.

- [Narrator] Meanwhile, George Pullman and his family enjoyed the trappings of this Gilded Age, in his custom-built mansion on Prairie Avenue with more than a dozen servants.

- These industrialists who despite all this literally had money falling out of their pockets decided that they were gonna make up their shortfalls on the backs of their workforce.

- There's a check for one of the workers for two weeks work for 12 cents.

That's what was left over after the rent was paid.

- And this was a situation that was untenable for the people who worked at Pullman.

- And when a committee of workers attempt to talk with him about preserving those wages and preserving work, he turns his back.

In fact, he takes great offense.

- [Narrator] With a stubborn employer and no labor laws to protect them, workers' grievances fell on deaf ears.

And in May of 1894, 4,000 of them walked off the job.

- The day after the walkout of May 11, 1894, Pullman had one of the Pullman bands playing here.

Everything is a scene, to appear as if everything was normal and there were no problems.

- [Narrator] Production of Pullman cars ground to a halt but the company claimed to be unscathed by the work stoppage.

And George Pullman stood firm in refusing to arbitrate.

- During the strike, many people in Chicago felt that Pullman was being very rigid and that he should be talking with his workers.

That he should be listening to their complaints.

It was his way or the highway.

- [Narrator] The workers knew that in order to force Pullman's hand, they needed to bring attention to their local cause.

So they sought the support of a powerful ally, the American Railway Union, the nation's largest labor organization.

At the helm was 38-year-old Eugene Debs.

- A Terre Haute, Indiana man, a great charismatic orator or speaker who truly believed in the solidarity of the workforce.

- He sees Pullman as the epitome of this oppressive capitalist class that can only exist, can only survive if they exploit workers and he helps to build this railroad union.

- [Narrator] Hundreds of Pullman workers were joining the ARU.

One month into the strike, the ARU held its national convention in Chicago where several Pullman workers, its newest members lobbied for the ARU support.

Among them was Jennie Curtis.

She worked as a seamstress for the Pullman Company, sewing curtains and carpets for the train cars.

Her father, also a Pullman worker had recently passed away.

- [Jennie] At the time of his death, we owed the Pullman Company about $60 for rent.

Sometimes when I could not possibly give them anything, I would receive slurs and insults from the clerks in the bank because Mr. Pullman would not give me enough in return for my hard labor to pay the rent for one of his houses and live.

- And Jennie, who perhaps gave, to my mind, one of the more important speeches in American history.

Her words included the following: Mr. President and brothers of the American Railway Union: - [Both] We joined the American Railway Union.

- [Jennie] Because it gave us a glimmer of hope.

Pullman, both the man and the town is an ulcer on the body politic.

It will go on, brothers, forever, unless you, the American Railway Union stop it, end it, crush it out.

(audience clapping) And so I say come along with us for decent conditions everywhere.

(audience clapping) - And amazingly, 600 men of this convention voted to support the strike which led to the national strike and the boycott of Pullman railroads across the country.

(dramatic music) - [Narrator] With the backing of the ARU, railroad workers nationwide refused to handle any train with a Pullman rail car.

- Anything attached to a railroad track was frozen.

- The switchmen in the yards, the workers agreed in solidarity to not cross that line with their fellow brethren.

And so this tiny, small local thing caught wildfire and became a national cause.

- [Narrator] The boycott involved 250,000 workers nationwide making it the largest sympathy strike in the history of the United States.

Within two months, the ARU effectively paralyzed rail travel on 29 railroads across the U.S. - Even the commuter railroads within the city, everything stopped.

- [Sue] Produce was lying to rot in the fields or in box cars.

Basically, the economic engine came to a halt in the United States.

- [Narrator] Deb stoked the fire at rallies where he attacked George Pullman.

- [Eugene] "I believe a rich plunderer like Pullman "is a greater felon than a poor thief "and it has become no small part "of the duty of this organization "to strip the mask of hypocrisy "from the pretended philanthropist "and show him to the world as an oppressor of labor.

You are striking to avert slavery and degradation."

- [Narrator] The great irony of Debs' statements, African-Americans were excluded from the ARU and therefore could not be part of the striking party.

(dramatic music) - The white railroad workers voted to have a color line.

They would not allow black workers in their union and that meant that the porters were not part of the ARU.

- And so their voice was not heard, their grievances were not part of this collective railing against the company for some relief.

- [Narrator] The strike remained peaceful but hugely disruptive.

George Pullman and other railroad tycoons were desperate to get the trains moving again.

- [Sue] The General Managers Association was a collective of 24 of the major powerful rail operators right here in Chicago, and were lunch buddies of George Mortimer Pullman.

And they said something had to be done.

- [Narrator] They hired strikebreakers and slammed Debs in the press, further infuriating the Pullman workers and their supporters.

In the south Chicago rail yards, throngs of protestors retaliated.

- People were tipping over rail equipment, setting them on fire.

- [Narrator] The General Managers Association capitalized on the chaos and arranged to have U.S. mail cars attached to trains with Pullman cars.

- Hmm, suddenly the United States mail would stop moving and that is exactly the affect the General Managers Association wanted.

- [Narrator] The managers accused Debs and the ARU of blocking interstate commerce and this forced the government to intervene.

- Pullman had friends in high places.

- [Susan] Grover Cleveland was listening to the major employers and doing their bidding.

- [Narrator] The U.S. Attorney General filed an injunction declaring the strike illegal.

- Pullman's influence in Washington really generates this favorable response.

- [Narrator] And on July 4th, 1894, thousands of federal troops began to descend on Chicago and the town of Pullman.

(dramatic music) - Once those military troops come to Chicago, a situation that was not violent gets out of control.

- [Narrator] In the South Chicago rail yards, an angry mob toppled train cars and set them ablaze.

The military opened fire.

- [Sue] People lost their lives over the situation.

- It stands out in the 19th century as the most dominant case of the use of military intervention to crush a labor union.

- [Narrator] In the end, the riots left dozens of people dead, thousands more injured and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property destroyed.

- But nobody won.

The railroads lost millions of dollars.

The workers didn't win.

They got no concessions from their employers.

Many of them lost their jobs.

If they went back to their job at Pullman, they had to sign a "I will not join a union" clause.

So they didn't gain anything.

The American Railway Union was crushed.

They almost dissolved at that point.

- But history has a longer arc and if you pull back you can see that these defeats end up creating the terrain for the next struggle, and the next struggle produces better outcomes.

- [Narrator] Whether George Pullman would have eventually softened to his workers' demands, history will never know.

A few years after the strike, Pullman suffered a heart attack and died in his Prairie Avenue mansion at the age of 66.

- It was a man who thought he was doing good and had been successful all of his life and found that the game and the rules had changed.

In fact, he was hated as being insufferable and not being lenient, not resolving the strike faster by yielding.

These were principles that had served George successfully throughout his life, but at this point in time and in history, it did not.

- [Narrator] In the wake of George Pullman's death, the Illinois Attorney General sued the company over its right to own and manage the town.

And the Illinois Supreme Court ordered the company to sell off everything in the town except the factories.

Pullman residents were given the first option to buy their homes and many of them did.

For five decades, employees continued trying to organize to no avail.

Meanwhile, under new leadership, the Pullman Company pivoted from manufacturing wood cars to steel.

It continued to innovate, adding electricity to its cars, increased ventilation and better safety standards.

- By 1900, on a given day across the world, 100,000 people would be in a Pullman car somewhere, the largest hotel in the world for gosh sakes.

- [Narrator] As passengers packed Pullman cars, the company expanded its onboard service team.

By the early 1920s, there were nearly 10,000 porters and maids employed by the Pullman Company.

Many were recent descendants of slaves and sharecroppers who had traveled north in search of employment.

- My dad was born in Lynchburg, South Carolina, humble beginnings.

His father was a sharecropper who wanted my father to be a sharecropper.

My father wasn't having any of that.

And so he left South Carolina and hitchhiked his way to Baltimore.

He was looking for a better life.

(pleasant music) - Oscar James Webb Senior, because I'm Oscar James Webb Junior, he was born in Macon, Georgia and then migrated to Chicago.

- [Narrator] Like many young black men at this time, Troy F. Brailey and Oscar Webb found employment as porters for the Pullman Company.

- They were trustworthy people and they were very polished.

In other words, shoes shined, hats shined and they always looked the part.

- That was the thing that gave them the sense of pride and respect in their communities.

People in the community would literally stand out like a parade watching them come home, like wow, who are these guys, you know?

They had the old doctor bags, the leather doctor bags and they'd be filled with tips that they had acquired from traveling from state to state.

- My father used to be on the road four or five days at a time.

And he would travel from Chicago to San Francisco to New York back to Chicago.

He always had candy and he would give the kids a sucker and from there go tell their mothers and fathers, "the porter just gave me a sucker!"

And then, they were, "oh my," then they would up the tip.

He might have left home empty, but when he come home, he was full of cash.

- Although you weren't paid a steady wage, oftentimes what you made in tips exceeded what was available for a typical wage employee who happened to be black.

- It was an opportunity to enhance his station in life and enhance the family's station in life as well.

- [Narrator] The onboard team made a ride on Pullman's "hotel on wheels," a class above the rest.

The smiling, servile staff was featured prominently in Pullman ads.

- The Pullman Company never saw Pullman porters and maids or African-American employees in any kind of light of equality.

The Pullman Company never saw them as the skilled, vital workforce that they in fact were.

- [Narrator] Porters routinely worked 20-hour shifts several days in a row and were away from their families for long stretches of time.

They often slept in the smoking car and for as few as three hours per night.

(dramatic piano music) In the 1982 film, "Miles of Smiles, Years of Struggle," porters shared their experiences.

- And during the night when you're trying to sleep somebody comes in and leaves the door open and all night long the door is slamming.

The door is slamming and like you can't get any sleep.

- It was hard work, it was long hours.

You were constantly at the beck and call of white passengers.

They often had to buy their own shoe shine kits, they had to buy their own towels and supplies.

- Some of them could in fact make a decent living but it was always insecure because it was always based on tips.

- [Narrator] In addition to the poor working conditions, porters faced various forms of racism by white passengers.

- Those gentlemen had to kinda accept that with a smile and just keep on moving.

- If I go back there and create a problem, I'm just as stupid as he is, so I ignored the whole thing.

- And had they talked back or anything of that nature, they may had been dropped off in whatever city that they were in.

- [Narrator] Just as slaves were named after their master, porters were often called George.

- Isn't that right, George?

- After their now deceased employer, George Pullman.

- So there was a kind of dehumanizing component to that, these weren't, you know, skilled individuals but they were rote cogs who provided subservient service and did not need to be recognized as human beings or as individuals at all.

- You either accepted it or you rejected it, depends on what kind of porter you are.

Well, I accepted it.

But of course, I didn't like it but what can you do?

- [Narrator] In the 1920s, the Pullman Company employed more black workers than any other U.S. corporation.

As the workforce grew, so did its influence.

Porters played a major role in advancing black culture, carrying black newspapers like The Chicago Defender to nearly every corner of the U.S. - [Cornelius] The Chicago Defender, The Pittsburgh Courier, these were papers that brought the north alive in the imagination of many black southerners.

They're able to read about events and protests and feel part of those kinds of civil rights activities that are happening in places like Chicago and New York and other places in the north.

- [Narrator] Pullman porters were sowing the seeds of civil rights activism.

- Oftentimes, they would have these newspapers and throw them off the back of the trains and through word of mouth, local youth, in particular would know where to pick these newspapers up and they would take the papers back to their communities, back to their stores, back to their churches.

- [Narrator] This early 20th century social network connected African-Americans across the U.S.

It also connected porters with one another and as they read stories of workers standing up to their employers, porters' own sense of agency grew.

(dramatic music) - They're discovering the power of a collective voice and they're beginning to organize.

- [Narrator] Chicago employed the greatest number of Pullman porters.

It was also the epicenter of the labor struggle.

- So, Chicago is this boiling pot of conflict, hostility, uncertainty, and you really have the early formation of two warring classes.

- Striking activity, it starts picking up because, of course, you have railroad unions, you have steel workers.

You even have efforts by the stockyard workers in Chicago to strike.

- [Narrator] Pullman workers were persistent, asking the Pullman Company to address their concerns around pay and conditions.

The company responded by creating and touting a company union: the Employee Representation Plan.

- These Employee Representation Plans had all sorts of social benefits like softball teams and a singing group but they never actually bargained, negotiated contract terms for Pullman porters.

The need for sleep, the need to be compensated for money spent for supplies used to service customers like shoe polish and brushes.

The need for a legitimate wage and not a reliance on tips.

None of these things were part of the Employee Representation Plan.

- [Narrator] The porters knew that if they wanted real change, they needed to organize.

They had to be smart, strategic and stay under the Pullman Company's radar.

- Losing your job could have serious impact on your entire family.

- [Narrator] In 1917, away from prying eyes of company management, porters began circulating a monthly magazine titled "The Messenger."

It was the creation of A. Philip Randolph, a labor activist sympathetic to the porters' cause.

- The Messenger was a radical magazine edited by A. Philip Randolph.

Randolph is deeply invested in talking about the class issues that workers face.

- He saw the importance of being a free citizen, to being an independent American, not being controlled or dictated or limited by your skin color.

He saw how that was deeply implicated with your economic power.

- [Narrator] Editorials in The Messenger campaigned against lynching and called for integration.

It also urged its readers to join black unions.

- The fair treatment of black workers is part and parcel with a broader kind of social contract around equal justice.

What he would say is that you could not achieve genuine social justice without economic opportunity and civil rights.

- [Narrator] In The Messenger, Randolph took direct aim at the Pullman company's new president, Robert Todd Lincoln, son of the great emancipator.

He wrote, by sentimentally appealing to the name of Abraham Lincoln through his son, it is a most unhappy and pathetic gesture.

For Abraham Lincoln freed Negroes from economic exploitation as chattel slaves, whereas his son, Robert T. Lincoln, has lent his influence and name to the notorious exploitation of Negroes as Pullman slaves.

- The U.S. Attorney General referred to Asa Philip Randolph as the most dangerous Negro in the United States simply because of his ability to influence masses, to awaken the dead, if you will.

- [Narrator] Randolph wasn't afraid to ruffle feathers and wouldn't be intimidated by the Pullman Company.

The porters felt he was just the right man to lead their union.

- Randolph was a socialist, labor activist, a great orator, a fiery individual, a highly intelligent individual.

- [Narrator] Through his writing and advocacy, Randolph proved that he would go to bat for black workers and challenge the status quo.

- He let them know that this is about dignity.

You guys are men, you have to stand up for yourself, you can't let these people walk over you.

And when they saw how he looked at them, they said this is the guy who we want to lead us.

- Randolph agreed to head their union.

They named it the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

They had longstanding grievances and clear demands.

- The Brotherhood demanded fair wages, more time to rest on the train.

They didn't want be referred to as George, they wanted their name to be known.

- [Narrator] By 1925, the Pullman Company employed 12,000 porters and Randolph wanted to organize as many of them as possible.

After all, there was strength in numbers.

- Randolph was advised that if you wanted to get the support of the porters behind you, you had to win the support of Milton Webster.

- [Narrator] A former Pullman porter and community organizer, Webster established the Brotherhood's first local office in Chicago and became vice president of the union as a whole.

- He and Randolph paired well together.

Randolph was the intellectual, Webster was the union pragmatist.

- [Narrator] Pullman maids played an early role in the organizing efforts.

- Webster, by many people's accounts, was not necessarily somebody who thought women should be working.

A. Philip Randolph was more willing to make sure that women were included in the union.

- [Narrator] Though outnumbered by porters, as they were on the trains, the maids were considered union members with full voting rights.

Porters' wives and daughters also played an essential role in organizing efforts by creating the Ladies Auxiliary.

- Those councils were active as fundraisers, as hostesses, as people who were going out and spreading the word of the Brotherhood.

- [Narrator] The Ladies Auxiliary organized rallies, educated the public about unions and cooked meals for A. Philip Randolph while he toured the country meeting with porters.

- My mother was involved in the Ladies Auxiliary.

Oftentimes, we don't give the women the credit that they deserve for the involvement.

She was the woman behind the man.

- The women of the Ladies Auxiliary was the secret weapon.

They did fundraising for these gentlemen, they organized for these gentlemen.

- [Narrator] Meanwhile, the Brotherhood promoted manhood rights.

- I think Randolph was somebody who appreciated what was then called the new Negro woman, somebody who was independent, politically savvy and who recognized that the race problem was something that men and women had to address.

Now Randolph's view of the perfect future and black women's view of the perfect future may be quite different.

- [Narrator] In the Brotherhood, gender equality would follow racial equality.

- Negroes want the same things that white citizens possess.

All their rights.

They want no reservations.

They want complete equality.

Social, economic and political.

- A. Philip Randolph was a wonderful man with a huge voice, tall and stately and just wonderful to be around.

- The man exuded brilliance when he spoke.

- And no force under the sun can stem and block and stop this civil rights revolution which is now underway.

- [Narrator] Randolph and the Brotherhood traveled the country, preaching their message of fair treatment and fair wages in other cities where Pullman had a presence, including Oakland, St. Louis, Baltimore and New York.

Meetings were kept quiet for fear of retribution by the company.

And by 1927, there were Brotherhood locals in more than 20 cities.

Chicago's was the largest.

The Brotherhood took particular aim at the Pullman Company's Employee Representation Plan calling it a sheer mockery.

- Black workers who aligned themselves with these company unions oftentimes found that no one was advocating for their position.

These unions were only advocating for the company.

- [Narrator] Porters and maids were leaving the company union and joining the Brotherhood.

The underground operation spread through word of mouth.

As soon as the first year, Randolph and union leadership recruited more than 7,000 members nationwide.

(dramatic music) As the union strengthened and membership grew, from Oakland to Baltimore, company executives began to fear that Brotherhood President A. Philip Randolph might be turning their workforce against them.

So they offered him a bribe.

- The Pullman Company had given Randolph a blank check and said you can fill it out to up to six figures.

Now imagine six figures during that time.

I mean, that's a lot now.

But imagine it during then and they said, look this is how important it is for you to not do what you're doing.

- And Mr. Randolph's famous refrain was, "Black people's dignity is not for sale."

And so he refused the check.

- And when he sent that check back, that is what, you know, created that groundswell of respect that he gained in the community.

- [Narrator] While porters joined the Brotherhood in droves, many others feared retribution by the powerful Pullman Company.

The company flexed its muscle through spies, intimidation and propaganda, routinely firing porters who openly supported the union.

These fear tactics pushed some porters to turn against their fellow men.

- There was a number of what we call snitches or spies for the company who would come and infiltrate the meetings of the porters and when word gets back to the company who was there, the list would appear about who was talking, who were attending these meetings, who would lose their jobs.

- [Narrator] Surprisingly, some of the greatest resistance to the Brotherhood came from within the black community itself.

With its massive profits, the Pullman Company sent thousands of dollars to both The Chicago Defender and the AME Church, major black institutions that withheld public support of the union.

- For lack of a better term, welfare capitalism where company owners would give money to black churches and black ministers to preach against organized labor.

- [Narrator] In response, the Brotherhood sought an ally in a respected Chicago journalist and activist named Ida B.

Wells.

(dramatic music) - Ida B.

Wells absolutely brought together the AME Church, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and used her relationships and influence with these organizations and institutions.

- They gave it a kind of moral authority as well as a legitimacy that other unionization efforts did not have.

- [Narrator] Backed by the black community, membership rose to more than half of the porters employed by the Pullman Company.

Meanwhile, Randolph and the Brotherhood brought their case to the federal government and pointed to legal precedent in a similar case brought by white conductors.

He wrote: "Both porters and conductors were demanding large wage increases, provision for sleep on the road, et cetera.

Today the conductors have won most of these things while the porters, as we have seen still ask most of them."

- As Randolph points out, there was no distinction, no difference.

They worked on the same trains, they worked the same hours, performed the same duties, employed by the same employer.

The only difference that was clear and could be discerned was race.

- [Narrator] The Pullman Company refused to even recognize the Brotherhood as a legitimate union claiming they were covered by it's company union.

So the government decided not to intervene, a stance it would maintain through at least four more appeals.

The porters were running out of options, and by 1928, Brotherhood members were losing faith.

The stock market crash the following year made matters even worse.

- After, you know, the depression kicked off, it was a very tense time, you know, people needed these jobs in order to maintain their family.

They didn't want to risk losing it and the Pullman company knew that, so they threatened to replace them with what they called scabs.

- [Narrator] Brotherhood members referred to the time as "the dark days."

The Great Depression left half of the country's African-Americans unemployed.

The Pullman Company furloughed nearly all of the maids which it deemed nonessential.

It also fired thousands of porters.

Many who remained chose to abandon the Brotherhood and cling to their precious jobs, knowing it would be near impossible to find work elsewhere.

- If we lose our foothold here, we may have to go back to Mississippi and we don't wanna go back to Mississippi.

Our children can't go to school in Mississippi.

I can't be a man in Mississippi.

My wife can't be safe.

Her black woman's body cannot be protected in Mississippi 'cause I have no rights there.

So, I'm not gonna rock the boat, 'cause I have too much to lose here.

(dramatic music) - It looks my friends, like a real landslide this time.

(crowds cheering) - [Narrator] In 1932, the country elected its 32nd president Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

- Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money, it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort, the joy and the moral stimulation of work.

(slow music) - [Narrator] In his first 100 days in office, Roosevelt signed more than a dozen major bills into law, including the National Industrial Recovery Act which guaranteed collective bargaining rights to workers.

And the National Labor Relations Act which outlawed company unions that didn't provide workers with independent bargaining power.

- [Franklin] Private enterprises in times such as these cannot be left without a system and without reasonable safeguards lest it destroy not only itself but also our processes of civilization.

- [Narrator] Roosevelt was a friend to labor and A. Philip Randolph seized the opportunity.

- So he figures out really how power is used in America and he understands that as powerful as the George Pullmans of America are, there are people even more powerful, and that would be the President of the United States.

That would be the political class in Washington.

- [Narrator] Joining forces with other labor groups, A. Philip Randolph and Brotherhood leadership lobbied Congress, asking to be recognized as the official union representing the porters.

And this time, the government responded with legislation that protected porters' right to organize.

- Now they were able to form a counter union to these company unions and have the workers vote on who they wanted to represent them.

- [Narrator] The Pullman Company could no longer claim that its company union, the Employee Representation Plan had jurisdiction over the porters.

And the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters became an official charter of the American Federation of Labor.

- Now we have the first black labor union in United States history.

- [Narrator] On August 25th, 1937, 12 years after Brotherhood members began their fight, they signed the first agreement between a union of African-American workers and a major U.S. corporation.

- That's how you get things done, you organize, you meet and then you negotiate.

- [Narrator] They achieved higher wages, a cap on monthly hours and better job security.

- The Pullman porters weren't just pieces of machinery.

They were men of respect.

They were men of dignity.

- [Narrator] In the decades that followed, the Brotherhood as well as the Ladies Auxiliary emerged as key players in the Civil Rights Movement.

- They really learned how to be organizers and how to be advocates as a result of the tutelage that they had through Randolph and the Brotherhood.

- The black freedom struggle was informed by black organized laborers who saw that there was something better out there.

- The fight for racial justice and the fight for economic justice are completely and totally linked.

- [Narrator] Some of the most significant events of the Civil Rights era were shaped by the Brotherhood and its members.

- Rosa Parks was the secretary of a gentleman by the name of E.D.

Nixon.

E.D.

Nixon was the local president of the NAACP.

- [Narrator] E.D.

Nixon was also a former Pullman porter who led the Brotherhood's Montgomery chapter, so when Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat, Nixon drew inspiration from his mentor, A. Philip Randolph.

He leveraged his network and organized.

- So with their phone bank, they were able to raise $72,000 and that is basically what helped them fuel the bus boycott and bail her out of jail.

- [Narrator] The union also helped give rise to other historical figures like Martin Luther King, Junior.

- A. Philip Randolph was really a mentor to Martin Luther King and helped him understand the power of sit-down strikes and boycotts which translated into trying to end Jim Crow in the 1940s and 50s and early 60s.

♪ We shall overcome ♪ - [Narrator] In 1963, 250,000 demonstrators gathered at the nation's capital to promote civil rights.

♪ We shall overcome ♪ - [Narrator] Randolph and the Brotherhood had been planning the march for two decades.

(dramatic music) - Not only are Negroes struggling to achieve a transition from second-class to first-class citizenship, but that our white brothers and sisters are marching on and on with the Negro citizens of the country.

- [Narrator] A. Philip Randolph gave a poignant speech before calling Dr. Martin Luther King to the podium.

- The march on Washington is not the climax of our struggle, but a new beginning not only for the Negro but for all Americans who thirst for freedom and a better life.

(audience clapping) - When Dr. Martin Luther King gave a speech in Washington, that was back on the backs of A. Philip Randolph and the Pullman porters.

- The achievements for his members and the achievements for workers and Americans writ large to make America a more Democratic and egalitarian society is probably a greater achievement than any labor leader has managed for America.

- Without A. Philip Randolph and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, there probably would be no modern Civil Rights movement.

- [Narrator] Many also credit the Brotherhood with the birth of America's black middle class.

- There was a possibility that, you know, we can make money and buy a home and send our children to college so that they can do something better.

And if it wasn't for people like A. Philip Randolph and Milton Webster and E.D.

Nixon, we may not have had those opportunities.

- [Narrator] Opportunities that echoed through generations.

- The Pullman porter descendants have a long lineage of people that, you know, have been blessed with the bloodline of porters.

- [Narrator] Porters' children and grandchildren include some of the most prominent African-Americans in our nation's history.

From Willie Brown, former mayor of San Francisco, to comedian Whoopi Goldberg, to the former First Lady, Michelle Obama.

- I'm just proud of the fact that they all, not only my father, but all of the Pullman porters stayed and they fought for what they believed should be theirs.

- [Narrator] Baltimore porter, Troy F. Brailey eventually ran his local office for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

For three decades after the union's first contract, Brailey and the Brotherhood continued to push for even better conditions for its members.

- "Dear Brother Brailey, this is to acknowledge receipt of your letter of February 4th, 1955.

There is no reason why the porters should be forced to sleep in beds such as described in your letter."

- [Narrator] Brailey became national vice president of the Afro-American Labor Council and eventually ran for public office.

- My father ran for the first time and was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1965.

He got a number of bills passed dealing with labor for the state of Maryland.

- [Narrator] Chicago porter O.J.

Webb had 10 children, most of whom went into lives of public service.

His son, Oscar J. Webb, Junior has fought for justice across the globe.

- They decided to make me a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations because I could reach people.

I don't get into who, what, where.

I'm a people person and that's what he was, he was a people person.

My success came from him.

This hat, this guy.

(slow dramatic music) - [Narrator] The Pullman story's legacy extends far beyond the history books.

Following the Pullman strike of 1894, in an effort to placate disgruntled workers, then President Grover Cleveland declared September 5th as Labor Day, which we still celebrate today.

- In many ways, George Pullman helped to bring about a national day of respect for America's working class.

- [Narrator] The town of Pullman was annexed to Chicago in 1889.

In the 1930s, the federal government established a minimum wage making home ownership more accessible to Pullman employees and the broader working class.

The neighborhood of Pullman remains a living testament to an important era in labor history and to the history of Chicago.

In 2015, President Barack Obama declared Pullman a national monument.

- This place, historic Pullman teaches us we have to keep standing firm and together.

That's the story of who we are, that's the story of our past.

And I have no doubt that we will pass the torch from generation to generation so that it is the story of our future as well.

- Pullman is the story of America and as it reflects in so many ways what we are, what we're about.

Certainly, it's the story of class, the story of capital and labor.

It's the story of race.

It's the story of gender, and it's the story even of immigration.

All these issues and these stories need to be told, and to me that is the story of America.

(dramatic music)