This story was in my local paper. It’s an interesting feature about Pullman Porters.
The National RR Museum in Green Bay recently opened an exhibit dedicated to the Pullman Porters. It includes oral histories from local residents who were the grandchildren of a porter, who is depicted as a video avatar inside of the Pullman Car Lake Mitchell, which is part of the exhibit. Pretty well done.
http://www.nationalrrmuseum.org/en-us/default.aspx
http://www.nationalrrmuseum.org/en-Us/exhibits/exhibits/default.aspx
If you’d like to learn more about the porters you might check out this book. Its about A Phillip Randolph who organized the porters into one of the first successful African American labor unions. An associate who is a history professor at the Univ. of WI Green Bay wrote the book.
http://www.amazon.com/Philip-Randolph-Vanguard-African-American/dp/074254897X
There is also a very good video about the porters called “Rising from the Rails” which contains many personal accounts and oral histories of the porters. Here’s a trailer on Youtube.
A Porter’s Story by Greg LeRoy
http://www.pullman-museum.org/main/pfs.04.07.08.12.jpg
Wasn’t there a tv movie that featured a segment on the plight of the Pullman porters? I vaguley rememeber that it may have been in the life story of Thurgood Marshall. Marshall was played by Sidney Poitier.