Last night and again this morning I read one woman's beautiful story of the Pullman Porters. I had no idea of the complexity of the history. I didn't know that all porters were called "George" after George Pullman, the man whose company built the dining, lounging and sleeping cars. There were 217 rules in the book for porters.
I googled for even more information and found this. It is a fascinating history.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0229/p20s01-ussc.html