Interview of Joseph Morris Sealy by Stanley Grizzle

Interview of Joseph Morris Sealy by Stanley Grizzle

The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

Many Black families were pushed from their homes because of discrimination, limited schooling, and unstable jobs, creating a need to move somewhere with real economic security. Montreal became that destination because the railroad industry offered steady wages and dependable employment. This strengthened further when a division of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters formed in 1942 alongside the early work of the Ladies’ Auxiliary, which Joseph Morris Sealy describes by explaining how porters’ reliable income allowed their children to stay in school, pursue new ambitions, and enter career paths that had previously been impossible due to restricted opportunities.

Stanley Grizzle

Clarence Nathaniel Este, Joseph Morris Sealy, Evelyn Braxton, and Velma Iris Coward King, interview by Stanley Grizzle, 1987, Stanley G. Grizzle fonds, 417386, Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada

Library and Archives Canada

1987

Library and Archives Canada

Library and Archives Canada

MP3

Video and Sound

Stanley: All right. Um, do you think that the community, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, uh, um, benefited the community beyond the porters' families? In other words, did they provide any inspirational leadership in-in other co- other, uh, community groups in the Black community?

Joseph: Well, I have to put it this way.

Stanley: Masonically or?

Joseph: A lot of the brother- of the Brotherhood Sleeping Car Porters, their children because of the fact the father was working and bringing in the necessary money. Their children benefited because opportunities were opening up. We live in a changing world and those kids were going to school, gettin’ education, and fitting into jobs away from the railroad completely. So, I believe that they did benefit the community because of a different class or ambitious young people fittin’ in the outside into the outside world. Yeah. They did benefit the community.

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