Scope and arrangement
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Collection includes printed matter, correspondence, legal documents, addresses by A. Philip Randolph, and other material reflecting the activities of this union. The correspondence files include outgoing letters relating to labor and union rights. There is substantial legal correspondence with the Delson, Levin and Gordon law firm (1950s-1960s), which represented the BSCP. There are also letters to and from Randolph, the international president; Benjamin F. McLaurin, international field organizer (1950s) and Eastern Zone supervisor (1960s); Thomas Patterson, who was BSCP Eastern Zone supervisor from 1951-1956; and BSCP International President C. L. Dellums (1968-1970). The correspondence often concerns the cases of individual workers, pensions, and contract rights. Included are addresses and resolutions submitted by Randolph at various conventions of the BSCP. The papers also contain two union contracts between the BSCP and the Pullman Company (1953), and the BSCP and the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Company (1969); clippings (1960-1977); programs from events honoring the BSCP; and financial records, including ledgers and financial journals. There are also constitutions and agreements, executive memoranda, resolutions, annual and financial reports, and contract settlements. Legal documents include the proceedings of the litigation for Fred Thompson vs BSCP (1961), a seniority case in which Thompson claimed that the BSCP discriminated against him because he was not constant in his union membership. A substantial part of the collection includes the reports of proceedings and minutes for biennial and triennial conventions and anniversary celebrations, which contain addresses and resolutions submitted by Randolph and others, 1940-1975.
Additionally, there are files containing the by-laws of the Women's Auxiliary of the BSCP and descriptions of the accomplishments of Rosina C. Tucker, its first secretary-treasurer (1954-1984). A scrapbook of clippings and miscellaneous flyers documents the role of the BSCP and blacks in the labor movement. Most of the documents relate to the proposed 1942 March on Washington, Executive Order 8802, A. Philip Randolph, the Fair Employment Practice Committee, and African-American women and national defense. The clippings are from 1941-1975, with the bulk from 1941-1942.
There is also a small collection of items (1944-1952) related to Berry J. Slater, a porter with the Pullman Company, which contains a BSCP membership book, membership working cards, and a Pullman Company handbook, Instructions to Porters, Attendants and Bus Boys (1952).