Making the Pullman Porters Visible at Pullman National Historical Park

Summary

In 2015, President Obama brought renewed attention to the African American Pullman Porters’ contributions to the U.S. labor and civil rights movements when he established the Pullman National Monument. Now Pullman National Historical Park, public and private efforts are underway to make the figure of the Pullman Porter visible in the surviving landscape of industrialist George M. Pullman’s model town, which is today a neighborhood on Chicago’s far South Side. Efforts include the construction of a small, commemorative monument outside of the National A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum, creation of murals, billboard marketing campaigns, and development of new interpretive exhibits. These efforts exemplify the way legacies of racism and institutional and economic power inform where and how the stories of the Pullman Porters’ will be told.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow