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Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) was the largest all-African American labor union in America. It was considered the first serious effort to organize the Pullman Company. The Pullman Company was among the most powerful business organizations in the country, and it viciously resisted efforts to unionize. The porters spread the news that the segregation and racial oppression of the South was not a norm to which African Americans must submit. The porters sought out A. Philip Randolph because they considered him a good orator, a tireless fighter for the rights of African Americans and, most importantly, because he was not a porter.
In August of 1925, the BSCP was officially launched. Pullman subsidized efforts by the African-American press to wage an all-out offensive against the union. Ministers and politicians joined in the attack, decrying the Brotherhood as "reds" and "Communists" who dared attack the Pullman Company, the "benefactor of the Negro race."
The Brotherhood was viewed, as a symbol of the African American's claim to dignity, respect and a decent livelihood.
The political left also played a role in energizing the civil rights movement. The Civil Rights Congress, although not southern based, too on several high profile cases involving brutality of police abuse towards blacks in the mid 1900's. The BSCP was closely involved in Randolph's effort to ensure fair hiring practices in WWII defense industries and in numerous subsequent campaigns 1978, the union was obliged to merge with the Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks, losing it s distinct identity but retaining it s rich historical legacy.