A Letter That Changed History: A. Philip Randolph, FDR, and the Fight for Fair Wages

 “They have looked in vain. Yes, they have looked in vain, for the Pullman Porters and maids are the victims of special-discrimination. The porters are beginning to believe that they are the victim of both race and class discrimination…In every instance upon which they have attempted to meet with the management of the Pullman Company directly to adjust their grievances, they have been refused a conference…”

The job of being a porter or a maid for the Pullman Company was far from ideal due to the terrible conditions that were beyond grueling. It was a job that was seen as prestigious employment within the black community; however, the reality was far from glamorous. The job involved way too long hours, low pay, and unsuitable environments. The work exhausting. Over time the discontent grew and cascaded into an unexpected fight for better rights. The conversations shifted as the workers began to question and challenge the Pullman Company.

Porters and maids performed a wide range of demanding tasks aboard numerous luxury railroad cars owned by the Pullman Company. These workers acted as waiters, chambermaids, valets, and bellhops all rolled into one catering to passengers every need. The job often included shining shoes, making beds, serving meals, and maintaining the cars while remaining impeccably dressed and polite at all times.

One of the biggest issues occurring was the time demand on these workers. They were expected to log over four-hundred hours each month and over eleven thousand miles traveled often working twenty hour long shifts at a time with very little rest. The wages paid to them were so meager that they relied on tips more then their pay to survive. That wasn’t even the worst of it however. The cost of uniforms, meals, and supplies that were needed to do the job all came out of their own pockets. There was no real dignity or protection for this labor force.

This leads us to today’s post. I want to share a letter written by A. Philip Randolph, who fought tirelessly for these workers. He was a civil rights activist and the founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Randolph wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt demanding fair wages and humane working conditions. Randolph’s leadership gave voice to a silenced workforce. One ignored by the government and Congress alike. It was a massive battle, but one that laid the foundation for labor and civil rights progress in the U.S.

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LETTER FROM A. PHILIP RANDOLPH

His Excellency Franklin D. Foosevelt
The White House
Washington, D. C.

Dear Mr. President,

Reports in the Press seem to indicate that the Congress will adjourn the last of this week, and that the labor bills will fail of passage.This, I assure you, is not only a source of discouragement to the Pullman Porters and Maids, but has engendered and fostered in their hearts a deep feeling of bitterness and a sinister and sullen sense of resentment against those charged with the responsibility for providing the legislative privilege of the workers to exercise the right of self-organization, and the selection and designation of representatives of their own choosing. Because of the long, hard fight the porters and maids have made, covering a period of some nine years to organize a union of their own, free from intimidation, interference and coercion by the Pullman Company, they looked forward to your pronouncements that the principle of workers’ self-organization as set forth in Clause 7 A of the National Recovery Act, and the Emergency Railroad Transportation act as a definite promise and assurance of relief from the notorious and vicious industrial slavery fastened upon them by the Pullman plan of Employee Representation or Company Union.

But, they have looked in vain. Yes, they have looked in vain, for the Pullman Porters and maids are the victims of special-discrimination. The porters end maids are beginning to believe that they are the victim of both race and class discrimination. Strangely or naturally enough, this belief has some semblance of fact and truth for the Pullman Porters and maids, are the only workers on the railroad who neither come under NRA or ERTA. When the porters and maids raised their case to the Coordinator of Federal Transportation, they were told that they (the porters and maids) are not under the jurisdiction of the former because the Pullman Company is a carrier and not under the latter because IT IS NOT A CARRIER by railroad. Now, Bill 3 32 66 and Bill H R 9689, to amend the Railway Labor Act approved May 20, 1926, and to provide for the prompt disposition of disputes between carriers and employees, will establish jurisdiction over the Pullman Company, and is upon these bills upon which the porters and maids are depending to insure and safeguard their rights of collective bargaining through a national labor organization which they maintain and control. If these amendments to the Railway Labor Act are not passed by this Congress, the porters and maids will be utterly without any means of redress of their grievances, since the existing Railway Labor Act is ineffective, which is the only reason for the proposed amendments.

The porters and maids have noted that by executive proclamation, you have extended the life of Emergency Railroad Transportation Act, which would have died June 16, another year. Other railroad workers, because the carriers, on which they work come under the jurisdiction of E R T A, have definite means for adjusting their grievances, at least, until the Act expires next June 16, 1933. Bill 3 2411, introduced by Senator C. C. Dill and a similar bill In the House introduced by Congressman Crosser will correct this condition by amending the Emergency Railroad Transportation act, so as to include the Pullman Company and thereby bring the porters and maids under its jurisdiction.

In every instance upon which the porters and maids have attempted to meet with the management of the Pullman Company directly to adjust their grievances, they have been refused a conference, although the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, through which they have sought conference, embraces the large majority of the porters and maids in the service. The porters and maids have sought the service of the United states Mediation Board, but to no avail. They have taken their case to the Interstate Commerce Commission, but this Commission decided by a majority vote in 1928, that the case of the porters and maids did not come under its jurisdiction, but properly falls under another arm of the government, the Mediation Board which had just failed to adjust the dispute between the porters and maids and the Pullman management. Our next effort was to secure a petition from the Federal-District Court to enjoin the Pullman Company from maintaining and operating the Plan of Employee Representation or Company Union. Judge Charles E. Woodward of Chicago, whom the House Judiciary Committee in a vote of 15 to 5, voted to recommend his impeachment for improper conduct as a Judge, handed down a decision against the Brotherhood of Sleeping car Porters, declaring that the Plan of Employee Representation, though financed by the Pullman Company, printing the ballots for the annual elections in its own printer shop , and holding said elections on its property, paying officials of the Plan, which does not allow the porters and maids to select anyone to serve as their representative to adjust grievances unless he is a porter in the employ of the Company, is not a Company Union.

We therefore have no other recourse but to appeal to you to either put Bill S 3266 and H S 9689 on your “MUST PASS” list, permit and require that Bill S 2411 with its counter part in the House to come to a vote, or the porters and maids must avail themselves of the most drastic measures in their power to win the right you have declared all workers posses, under your labor policy, namely, to organize and collectively to bargain as free workers. Every Government agency, to which the porters have carried their case, has given them the “run around”, until there is widespread suspicion and distrust of both officials and the law. Officials have proven to be vague, uncertain, indefinite and timid before the power of the Pullman Company, on whose Board of Directors sit, J. Pierpont Morgan & R.K. Mellon, George Whitney, George F. Aker, Alfred Sloan, Harold S. Vanderbilt, the high and mighty monarchs of industry. As for the laws, experience has proven to the porters and maids that they, the laws, never mean what they say, and clever corporation lawyers, twist, distort and contort them, together with ambiguous, Janus-faced, judicial decisions, to mean almost anything, except in the interest of the porters and maids.

Naturally, to the porters and maids, the question arises, *IS THE PULLMAN COMPANY MORE POWERFUL THAN THE GOVERNMENT?” Are they (the porters and maids’ to be Included in the new Deal? fill the government permit the largest single group of Negro workers in the industry to be the victims of legislative discrimination, while they serve as faithful, efficient and necessary employees of an interstate carrier, which is the beneficiary of Federal Law, has no funded indebted-ness, and boasts of having never passed paying a dividend, even during this depression, an unheard of and unprecedented record in world financial history. It is this very Company which compels the public to Pay a part of the porters wages in tips, which by the way, have fallen since the beginning of the depression over 75 percent. It forces the porters, underpaid as they are, to buy shoe-polish, to shine passengers’ shoes. Porters, according to a survey made by the Labor Bureau, -Inc of New York, are required to payout as occupational expense, including uniforms, meals on cars, insurances, ^33.62 a month, out of a monthly wage, if they make a month, which is seldom done, of $72.50.

It is this Company, too, Mr. President, which despite your effort to reduce unemployment by reducing hours of work, forces the porters and maids now to work nearly 400 hours a month. As a consequence of these long, inhuman, stretch-out, sweat-shop-hours, thousands of porters and maids are furloughed and put on the extra board. Without the right to organize a union of their own, it is imposeile for the porters and maids to correct this condition. Unless the porters receive your aids they shall rely upon such forces they themselves can mobilize to free themselves from Pullman Company Union tyranny, even if it means to STRIKE.

Respectfully yours,
A. Philip Randolph, National President.

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The pressure and the growing support from other leaders made it harder for the Pullman Company to ignore the demands of its Black workers especially after Randolph sent the letter to President Roosevelt. Things started to shift. The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters finally gained recognition in 1937. The organization become the first Black labor union to sign a collective bargaining agreement with a major U.S. corporation. That meant porters and maids had the power to finally negotiate for better pay, shorter hours, and fair treatment.

It was a huge win for black labor rights across the country! This victory didn’t just change things for Pullman workers. It ignited a spark to a much bigger movement. This fight showed that organizing could work despite the odds being stacked. Randolph’s push for justice didn’t stop with the Pullman Company. His leadership opened doors for civil rights actions that included a march on Washington decades later.

Once the union was recognized. He kept building pressure on the government to support workers across industries. Randolph understood that labor rights were tied to civil rights and he used every tool he had to make it clear. I am talking letters, speeches, and marches. His work helped move public opinion to force leaders to reckon with the fact that black labor wasn’t just essential. It deserved respect and protection.

The ripple effect reached far beyond the railroads and the Pullman Company. Randolph’s organizing laid the foundation for desegregating the military and securing fair employment practices. His strategy of using direct action and public pressure became a model and provided the path for later movements. What started as a fight for Pullman porters and maids to get better working conditions grew into a blueprint for how black workers could claim their place in American democracy. Randolph didn’t just change one company. He changed the country.

“We must develop huge demonstrations, because the world is used to big dramatic affairs. They think in terms of hundreds of thousands and millions and billions… Billions of dollars are appropriated at the twinkling of an eye. Nothing little counts. Since almost all Negroes are workers, live on wages, and suffer from the high cost of food, clothing and shelter, it is obvious that the Republican and Democratic Parties are opposed to their interests. I suggest that ten thousand Negroes march on Washington, D.C., the capital of the Nation, with the slogan, ‘We loyal Negro American citizens demand the right to work and fight for our country.”

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