All aboard? Amtrak to honor Pullman porters

They spent their working lives on the rails. Now Amtrak is offering retired Pullman porters another ride: a free trip to a celebration of the role they played in the rise of American railroads.

"They are a part of America's history," Darlene Abubakar of Amtrak said in a statement. "Amtrak wants to find these extraordinary gentlemen and honor them."

The passenger railroad said that every year there are fewer surviving Pullman porters. The railroad is hoping to get five to 10 to attend a celebration May 9 at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, said spokesman Hank Ernest. Celebrations have already been held in Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Oakland.

Pullman porters, who were black, tended to the needs of passengers who rode in Pullman first-class sleeping cars.

But the role they played in history was much bigger than that, said Larry Tye, author of "Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class."

Tye said Pullman porters formed the first successful African-American trade union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Pullman porters also played key roles at the dawn of the civil rights movement. And many of the porters' descendants can be found now among members of the black middle class.

The Pullman porters were a fixture of the railroads from the end of the Civil War to the late 1960s.

Amtrak asked that retired Pullman porters, their families, or their friends contact Saunya Connelly at 202-906-4164 or e-mail her at connels@amtrak.com by April 14.