Pullman National Monument seeks ambassador
Position will help ‘teach the lessons of labor history, capitalism, industrialism and racism’
An American flag flaps and curls next to a Chicago flag at the entrance of the Pullman National Monument and Visitors Center at 111th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue. A clock tower steeple six stories high scrapes the sky above a large brick administration building once used by railroad industrialist George Pullman for designing Pullman Palace railcars.
On a recent November morning, the national park seemed quiet in the wake of its grand opening last Labor Day, but interest seemed to be gaining momentum.
Visitors trickled into the museum via a passageway outfitted to resemble the inside of a Pullman Palace Car from the late 1800s. Until the late 1950s, the passenger train cars enabled Americans to travel across the nation on rails while seated in the lap of luxury.
Within the elaborately carved wood walls are fold-up sleeping berths and a table outfitted with fine China and silver. In a repeating video, a lavishly dressed woman from the late 1800s remarks that the furnishings remind her of home.
The luxurious railcars of Pullman tell only a small part of this place.
“If ever there were a place that could teach the lessons of labor history, capitalism, industrialism and racism, this is it,” said Sue Bennett, assistant superintendent of the Pullman National Monument.
While the museum conveys the rise of American industry, it is also the site of a railroad strike that once halted the wheels of commerce and sent the nation’s capitalist system reeling back on its heels. Many say it represents ground zero for America’s labor movement as well as the beginnings of the civil rights movement.
Beyond the Pullman Palace Car, the museum space conveys the stratospheric success of Pullman as an industrialist in stark contrast to the sheer toil of factory workers and Pullman porters who endured, as one display reveals, 100-hour plus work weeks.
Those struggles resonate loudly with the workers of today. Handwritten notes from visitors that fill a message board near the museum’s exit, include messages such as:
“TWA local 234 was here.”
“Solidarity with Strength. UAW Workers.”
“Strikers have the high moral ground. Hold that line. Salute John Deere workers!”
“Nurses in solidarity. #NNU #National Nurses United”
“Union Solidarity for striking IATSE Workers Monday 18 Oct. 2021
Union workers are not the only ones drawn to the destination, said NPS superintendent Bennett. “The Pullman National Monument also attracts plenty of historians, teachers and community activists,” she said.
Beyond opening the monument to visitors from all over the world, the National Park Service aims to connect with local residents by deepening ties with local organizations who fought early on to preserve local history, Bennett said.
Among those allies are the Historic Pullman Foundation, the National A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum, the Bielenberg Foundation, the state of Illinois and several local colleges and universities, including DePaul University, Loyola University Chicago, and Olive-Harvey College.
To enhance outreach and community building efforts, the National Park Service is partnering with the Stewards Individual Placement Program to hire for a one-year paid internship. As a Community Volunteer Ambassador, that person is expected to interact with schools and community organizations.
“This is a new position,” Bennett said, adding that it may seem like a lot of responsibility, but the person would be joining a team of National Parks employees and about 22 volunteers.
“We’re starting to get bookings for school field trips, so we’re anxious to hire,” said Bennett. “we’re looking for someone to help us grow our volunteer base.
“The person we hire will learn what it’s like to work for the federal government and National Park Service, but they’ll also get plenty of experience with grassroots organizing,” Bennett said.
The hire will have that in common with the Pullman workers.
In response to the recession of 1893, George Pullman cut factory workers’ wages by 25%, but he never gave them any breaks on rents in the surrounding company town he created.
“The Pullman workers may have been among the first to enjoy indoor plumbing, but what good is that if you can’t eat?” Bennett said.
When the Pullman Palace Car workers opted to strike in August of 1894, the American Railway Union joined in and shut down rail travel and transit across the nation.
Some died in the violence that ensued when federal troops arrived in Chicago. Families suffered. Wives of workers became penniless widows with children to support.
“At first, it seemed like nobody won,” Bennett said. “People lost their lives.
Mail didn’t get delivered. Produce rotted on the railcars. Workers burned and turned over equipment.”
After the strike, however, Congress passed the Erdman Act in 1898, which required railroad companies and unions to arbitrate labor disputes.
Due to racism, the African American Pullman porters were not permitted to live in the town of Pullman, as illustrated in the book “A Long Hard Journey: The Story of the Pullman Porter” by Patricia McKissak. They also were excluded from standing in solidarity with the white railroad workers. Their struggles to organize and gain bargaining rights and workplace protections lasted longer.
It wasn’t until 1925, under the lead of A. Phillip Randolph, that the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was established. An exhibit devoted to Pullman Porters features photos, artifacts, a uniform, portable staircase for passengers, as well as literature and posters and other literature related to their struggles for equality.
In 1937, the porters won their first Pullman company contract and achieved a 240-hour work month, four to six hours off each night, and wages instead of tips only.
Besides offering testament to the location’s significance in American history, a National Park brochure available at the museum’s entrance highlights nearby points of interest, including the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porters Museum at 817 E. 104th Street.
The father of former first lady Michelle Obama was a Pullman Porter. President Barack Obama referenced the fact in setting aside the location to be developed as a National Park in 2015. During his years of community organizing in Chicago, he frequently drove past the site.
After the death of George Pullman in 1897, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in 1898 that Pullman’s company charter was for manufacturing only. That meant Pullman workers could purchase homes in the town of Pullman, which was later annexed by the City of Chicago in 1907.
The last Pullman Palace car rolled off the production line in 1956. The company closed in 1981, having also manufactured airplane parts for the military, commuter rail cars and Amtrak cars.
For decades, residents of the Pullman neighborhood fought to preserve the site’s history. They also saved it from the wrecking ball after a fire decimated the clock tower and administration building in 1998.
Many of those individuals live within the boundaries of the national monument, which is bounded by 103rd Street on the north, the Norfolk and Western rail line on the east, 115th Street on the south and Cottage Grove Avenue on the west.
The deadline to apply for Community Volunteer Ambassador internship is Dec. 17. More information is at https://www.cvainternships.org/.