Episode 5: Boston

Our final episode brings us to Boston, MA where, at the turn of the 20th century, Black men and women worked as Pullman porters and maids – serving predominantly white travelers while reinforcing a hierarchy reminiscent of the Antebellum South. Wives, sisters, and daughters largely made up the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters – and served as their mouthpiece – keeping the economic, social, domestic, and political interests of railroad workers at the center of their activism. We’ll hear from special guests Kerri Greenridge, Larry Tye, Melinda Chateauvert, and Helen Credle, as well as from musician and Silkroad collaborator Cécile McLorin Salvant, whose song “Have You Seen My Man?” gives voice to the legions of Black women who awaited the safe return of their loved ones aboard the trains, while they took care of home in communities like Boston’s South End neighborhood.