Episode
A Porter’s Life: Riding the Rails of Black Labor History
- Podcast
- 77 Flavors of Chicago
- Published
- Feb 9, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3601
- Processing state
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Summary
A Porter’s Life: Riding the Rails of Black Labor History The morning of April 6th 1907, Ross Wood decided to fill out the application to become a Pullman Porter. He was 23 years old, and until this point he has only ever worked as a servant; a “houseboy”. Wood was born to parents that were enslaved not too long before he was born. He thought about how if he had been born just 20 years earlier, he too would’ve been a slave. He wanted to be a porter. It was a respected job among his black peers...