Abstract

THE WOMEN BEHIND THE UNION THE WOMEN BEHIND THE UNION: Halena Wilson, Rosina Tucker, and the Ladies’ Auxiliary to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters bY Paula F. Pfeffer* When he began to organize the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) in 1925, A. Philip Randolph had a grandiose vision. Not only did he plan to unionize African-Americans, a group deemed unorganiz- able by white labor leaders, but Randolph also foresaw the advantages of mobilizing their wives, held in even lower esteem by white society. The women, Randolph realized, could be utilized for morale boosting, for fund-raising, and even more important for recruiting. Because the porters had to be organized in secret to avoid reprisals by the Pullman Company, the women indeed proved an asset since they could talk to other porters’ wives in their homes and have them persuade their hus- bands to join the Brotherhood.’ Neither Randolph, Milton P. Webster- head of the Chicago Division of the BSCP, nor any of the other Brother- hood officers gave any thought as to what such an organization would mean in the lives of the women; their only concern was how the women’s *Earlier versions of this paper were read