Hey, Porter!

The A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum in Chicago needs your help. According to an article in the Spring 2002 issue of American Legacy: The Magazine of African-American History & Culture, the museum seeks the names and oral histories of Pullman Porters who worked the nation's railroads between 1863 and 1969. Information collected from surviving porters and their relatives will eventually be available online to students, historians, and anyone interested in the Pullman story.

The museum seek the names and oral histories of Pullman Porters who worked the nation's railroads between 1863 and 1969.

A. Philip Randolph was a black union leader and civil rights activist who helped organize thousands of Pullman employees in the 1920s and '30s. The museum, which honors Randolph and his union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, was founded in 1996 by Lyn Hughes. A single mother with no museum curator experience, Hughes won a grant from the Illinois Historical Preservation Agency to renovate a brownstown in Chicago's Pullman Historic District the museum, which has since outgrown its facilities.

To register your Pullman ancestor or story, log on to the museum's website at www.aphiliprandolphmuseum.org. or call 773-928-3935.

ILLINOIS HERITAGE 19