Blacks on Canadian Railways

Blacks on Canadian Railways

In her journal article, Blacks on Canadian Railways, Agnes Calliste breaks down the times of Black men working as sleeping car porters into three periods. The first is from 1917-1939. Black men were excluded from railway unions, so the Order of Sleeping Car Porters and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters were established (37). The second period is from 1939-1964. By 1943, the BSCP had 15,000 members worldwide (42). After World War II, however, competition from cars and airlines led to mass layoffs of railway employees (44). In the last period, from 1964-1980, some Black men were promoted to porters but the majority were not (44-45). In addition, Calliste describes certain aspects of the occupation. In the first half of the twentieth century, before diesel, porters had to regularly dust away soot from steam engines to maintain the high cleanliness standards (37). This was just one of the many tedious tasks that were a part of porters’ jobs. Porters were forbidden from eating their meals in the same area as passengers, instead forced to eat behind a green curtain, which porters viewed as segregation (40-41). Overall, Calliste’s categorization of the three eras and her description of life on the rails laid the groundwork for future historians.

Agnes Calliste

Calliste, Agnes. “Blacks on Canadian Railways.” Canadian Ethnic Studies, 20, no. 2 (1988): 36-52. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/docview/1293156466/fulltextPDF?parentSessionId=a9nIt73tprw2DMQgDjKWqnNzBxwpCT7EkCwYldsF5Lk%3D&pq-origsite=primo&searchKeywords=black%20canadians%20railway&accountid=14701&sourcetype=Scholarly%20Journals.

Canadian Ethnic Studies

1988

Canadian Ethnic Studies

Journal article