Rising from the Rails by Larry Tye

I heard Larry Tye interviewed on NPR and was strangely interested in reading his book about the impact the Pullman Porters had on the making of the Black middle class. This isn't the type of book I usually choose but something about it struck me. I have shamefully decided not to read Infinite Jest this summer after trying for 34 pages, so this book became a kind of penance.

The book reminded me of the serious nonfiction I used to have to read for classes in college. Tye had obviously researched the book impeccably, interviewing porters and family members to gather a complete collection of anecdotes which he used generously throughout the book.

I had known very little about the Pullman Porters - but Tye gave some good background to get even the casual reader up to speed. After emancipation, ex-slaves had very few choices for careers. George Pullman had started a sleeping car business and needed attendants who wanted job opportunities so badly that they would accept sub-par conditions and expectations. He also wanted attendants for his cars that would blend into the background as "invisible" and ex-slaves fit both of those bills - thus an industry and labor force was born.

Pullman porters were treated horribly, scarcely sleeping, ridiculed by some passengers and co-workers, and underpaid with no chance of promotion. But they were also given an opportunity to travel and get exposure to the country that was not afforded to most ex-slaves or to their offspring. This job, Tye argues, enabled Blacks in America to create a middle class that previously had not existed for them.

Tye does a wonderful job covering the breadth of the story, including topics such as the porters' depiction in media, their training program, their family life, and a large section on their creation of a workers' union, which was one of the lengthiest processes in history for this type of union. He provides significant background on George Pullman, whose company employed the porters, and A. Philip Randolph, the founder of the union. Tye even takes a slightly long detour into Martin Luther King's draft into the civil rights movement.

This book opened my eyes to an era and a particular set of lives that I hadn't considered before.