Why read Rising from the Rails?

Book cover of Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class

Book description

"A valuable window into a long-underreported dimension of African American history."―Newsday

An engaging social history that reveals the critical role Pullman porters played in the struggle for African American civil rights

When George Pullman began recruiting Southern blacks as porters in his luxurious new sleeping cars, the former slaves suffering…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Rising from the Rails as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Robert F. Barsky

Author

I visited the home of Robert Todd Lincoln, President Abraham Lincoln's oldest and only surviving son, who served as President of the Pullman Palace Car Company from 1901 to 1911. I knew some of the stories associated with the Pullman company, in part because of the remarkable stories told by John Gilmore in his book 'Swinging in Paradise: The Story of Jazz in Montreal', which emerged from the move of Black train porters from New York to Montreal. I was surprised, however, about how much I didn't know about Pullman, about the strike of its porters, and the profound impact…

From Robert's 3 favorite reads in 2024.