A Porter Checking on a Child in a Sleeping Car

A Porter Checking on a Child in a Sleeping Car

A photograph taken by an unknown person in 1947. A Black sleeping car porter reads a book to a passenger, a young white boy. Sleeping car porters had to perpetuate stereotypes of Black men, that they were friendly and helpful and servile. However, by playing into this, like by reading to a young white boy, porters were able to rewrite some of these predispositions. If a young white boy’s only memory of a Black man was of a kind porter that read to him, he might be less inclined to be racist as an adult. By playing into all the right aspects of their stereotypes, Black men controlled the narrative in the best way they could.

Ingenium Archives

Canadian Museum of Science and Technology. A Porter Checking on a Child in a Sleeping Car. 1947. Photograph. CN Images of Canada Collection. X-24470. Ingenium Archives. https://files.ingeniumcanada.org/items/arch/489/X-24470_5c8d0671b90224d96bd3c77022297e25b24783b8.jpeg

Ingenium Archives

1947

Public Domain

Photograph