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

Recommended by The Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, and The Seattle Times.

"A valuable window into a long-underreported dimension of African American history."
—Newsday

When George Pullman began recruiting Southern Black men 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 irresistible. They quickly signed up to serve as maid, waiter, concierge, nanny, and occasionally doctor and underta...