Black Poetry : reclaim your negro

1poetsought

Well-Known Member
REGISTERED MEMBER
Jan 14, 2003
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The Lone-Star State
Occupation
Poet
Embrace the negro
who did what had to be done
living to fight another dark day

Dark days don't end
in the skin I'm in


Dare to take pride in Pullman porters
maids and The Underground Railroad

Channel the sheriff held at gunpoint
in the movie Blazing Saddles
cunning as black
on Black

"I shot the sheriff...
but I didn't shoot no deputy"

Deputize your brother's brother
in an effort to take back
what is rightfully yours

Present in the knowledge of self
shake the stigma of the past
as you reclaim your negro


Darryl Abdu Omari
aka 1poetsought ~ still a man
 
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

As soon as the union was formed, it put together a list of demands of the Pullman company:

1. A significant pay raise

2. Abolishing the practice of tipping

3. Adequate rest breaks

4. Increasing pensions

5. A name card in each car with the actual name of the porter

Woman-0b2cce8673e24238803e5fdab17d96ae.gif

Since tips would often be more than actual wages, it seems counterintuitive that they would want to abolish them, right? But in reality, to get those tips, workers had to be subservient and rigidly obedient to white clientele. Removing them and raising wages would effectively remove one of the more humiliating parts of their job.

Of course, the company refused and began firing and spying on the organizers and union sympathizers. Everything had to go underground, including secret handshakes and passwords. A ladies' auxiliary unit composed of the wives of porters was formed, which was arguably one of the most critical components of the secret operations. One thing working in their favor was that trains going from city to city across the country provided great opportunities for distribution of literature, news, job information, and more.

It took 12 years for the porters to succeed. One key to victory was the 1935 passage of the National Labor Relations Act (with some pressure by Franklin Delano Roosevelt), which gave unions legal legs when it came to organizing and prevented some of the company's intimidation tactics used to keep the union from forming. 1935 was the first negotiating session between the company and the union. That same year, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters became the first African-American union recognized by the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The union signed its first contract with Pullman in August 1937.

The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, fresh off a significant victory, went on to help integrate other jobs and unions across the country.
 

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