Luther S. Thomas was an African American railroad porter employed by the Pullman Company in the 1940s and 1950s, and president of the Asheville North Carolina Division of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. The Luther S. Thomas papers cotains...
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Luther S. Thomas was an African American railroad porter employed by the Pullman Company in the 1940s and 1950s, and president of the Asheville North Carolina Division of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. The Luther S. Thomas papers cotains correspondence, including a few letters to staff of the Pullman Company, membership records, and printed matter documenting Luther S. Thomas's career as president of the Asheville, North Carolina Division of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters union. The collection also contains miscellaneous correspondence and documents relating to the Triennal Convention of the Brotherhood in 1953, including a handwritten report by Thomas to the Asheville division. The bulk of the collection pertains to labor grievances filed by Thomas and several Asheville porters, particularly on issues of discrimination and adequate health safeguards in the transportation of patients with communicable diseases. Also included are Division membership lists and printed material about tourist sites published by various railroad lines.
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