brotherhood of sleeping car porters - Toronto, ON, Canada
Posted by: 
Ariberna
N 43° 38.505 W 079° 23.182
17T E 630148 N 4833349
Sleeping car porters needed to work incredibly hard and make sure that passengers felt taken care of. Many young Black men became porters, as it was one of the only well-paying jobs open to the Black community in the early 20th century.
Waymark Code: WM19A3K
Location: Ontario, Canada
Date Posted: 01/06/2024
Views: 0
In this park with an outdoor museum of trains when the kids can enjoy, there is this plaque that puts:
"For several decades until the late 1980s, this site was a large coach yard where sleeping car porters working for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) prepared passenger cars for travel to the United States and across Canada, which could take up to four days and nights. Black men were preferred for the job because of their long history in domestic service to whites. Porters working for Canadian railways came from Black communities in Canada, but were also recruited from the United States and the Caribbean.
Porters faced institutional racism in all aspects of their work: their pay was lower, they were barred from promotions to supervisory positions, and they were excluded from white railway workers' unions. They began to organize, most successfully in 1939, by joining forces with the Brate in 1925.
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), an American union.
On May 18, 1945, the BSCP became the first Black union in Canada to sign an agreement with its employer, the CPR. Among other benefits, porters' starting salaries increased, they received pay for downtime on the road, and, after 1955, they could be promoted to sleeping car conductor.
The BCSP's organizing efforts and civil rights advocacy left a powerful legacy that influenced human rights policy and labour
relations in Canada.
Sleeping car porters (left to right) Shirley Jackson, Pete Stevens, Harry Gairey (Porter Instructor), and Jimmy Downes, post-1945.
Daniel G. Hill Collection, Library and Archives Canada.
Ladies Auxiliary, Toronto Pullman Division, BSCP. Wives, daughters, sisters, and widows of porters formed the Ladies Auxiliary:
They focused on education and fundraising initiatives.
Stanley G. Grizzle Collection, Library and Archives Canada
HERITAGE TORONTO 2017"
Group that erected the marker: Toronto
Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary:
272 Bremner Blvd Suite 260
Toronto, ON Canadá
M5V 2T6
URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: Not listed
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