Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class

Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class
by Larry Tye

Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class
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Book Summary Information

Author: Larry Tye
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-06-01
ISBN: 0805078509
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks

Book Reviews of Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class

Book Review: A little known history and it's legacy
Summary: 5 Stars

Larry Tye does a wonderful job of not only telling the story of the Pullman porters but also telling of the age in which they lived that includes a history of the railroad industry in America. He tells how Pullman Porters got by and what they did to survive. In several instances, he also shows how even though there was not always good blood between the white conductors and other white workers and the Pullman Porters, there were times when they had to work together.

For older African American readers the book is a trip down memory lane, allowing them to recall stories of fathers, realitives and family friends who were Pullman porters. For younger African Americans its a great lesson in history - and in a sense far more relevant than stories of how slaves got by. For White Americans its a look at how their grandparents and great grandparents looked at African Americans.

Included in the story of the Pullman porters is the story of A. Phillip Randolph and his sometimes lost story and his contributions to the Civil Rights Movement.

One of the important things that I came away from this book with was the legacy that that these men - and few women- passed on to their children and the number of significant African Americans who hold significant places in American life because of the hard work and savings of a Pullman Porter who took degredation so that their children could go to college.

This book should be required reading in every African American History class! It's readable and comprehensive.

On page nine there is one small error. Tye refers to a "lanky lawyer with whiskers from Springfield named Abraham Lincoln" who road the rails. Lincoln did not acquire his beard until after his election in 1860.

Summary of Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class

"A lively and engaging chronicle that adds yet another dimension to the historical record."-The Boston Globe

When George Pullman began recruiting Southern blacks as porters in his luxurious new sleeping cars, the former slaves suffering under Jim Crow laws found his offer of a steady job and worldly experience irresistable. They quickly signed up to serve as maid, waiter, concierge, nanny, and occasionally doctor and undertaker to cars full of white passengers, making the Pullman Company the largest employer of African Americans in the country by the 1920s.

Drawing on extensive interviews with dozens of porters and their descendants, Larry Tye reconstructs the complicated world of the Pullman porter and the vital cultural, political, and economic roles they played as forerunners of the modern black middle class. Rising from the Rails provides a lively and enlightening look at this important social phenomenon.

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