Editing Sleeping car (section)

===Cultural impact of Pullman porters===

{{Further|Pullman porter}}
[[File:Pullman porter making an upper berth aboard the Capitol Limited bound for Chicago.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|Pullman porter making an upper berth aboard the [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad|B&O]] ''[[Capitol Limited (B&O train)|Capitol Limited]]'' bound for Chicago, {{circa|1944}}]]
One unanticipated consequence of the rise of Pullman cars in the US in the 19th and early 20th centuries was their effect on [[civil rights]] and [[African-American]] culture. Each Pullman car was staffed by a uniformed [[Porter (railroad)|porter]]. The majority of [[Pullman porter|Pullman porters]] were African Americans. While still a menial job in many respects, Pullman offered better pay and security than most jobs open to African Americans at the time, in addition to a chance for travel, and it was a well regarded job in the African-American community of the time. The Pullman attendants, regardless of their true name, were traditionally referred to as "George" by the travelers, the name of the company's founder, [[George Pullman]]. The Pullman company was the largest employer of African Americans in the United States.<ref>{{cite book|last=Grizzle|first=Stanley|title=The Story of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in Canada|year=1998|publisher=Umbrella Press|location=Toronto|pages=20–23, 39–42}}</ref>

Railway porters fought for political recognition and were eventually unionized. Their union, the [[Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters]] (established, 1925), became an important source of strength for the burgeoning [[Civil rights movement (1896–1954)|Civil Rights Movement]] in the early 20th century, notably under the leadership of [[A. Philip Randolph]]. Because they moved about the country, Pullman porters also became an important means of communication for news and cultural information of all kinds. The African-American [[newspaper]], the ''[[Chicago Defender]]'', gained a national circulation in this way.{{citation needed|date=March 2014}} Porters also used to re-sell [[phonograph record]]s bought in the great metropolitan centres, greatly adding to the distribution of [[jazz]] and [[blues]] and the popularity of the artists.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Schoenberg|first1=Loren|title=Race Records|url=https://www.pbs.org/jazz/exchange/exchange_race_records.htm|website=www.pbs.org|publisher=Public Broadcasting Service|access-date=5 December 2014}}</ref>