Museum History

Museum History

The National A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum was founded in 1995 by Dr. Lyn Hughes. The facility is located in the Historic Pullman District in Chicago Illinois. On February 19, 2015 President Barack Obama designated the Historic Pullman district a National Monument that is now a part of the National Park Service. The museum is named after men who made history – Asa Philip Randolph and Pullman Porters, the men who made up the membership of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) union. Randolph was the chief organizer and co-founder of the BSCP, the first African-American labor union in the country to win a collective bargaining agreement. Under Randolph’s leadership, the Pullman Porters fought a valiant battle for employment equality with the corporate giant, the Pullman Rail Car Company.

Their pioneering efforts created the first bona-fide union for the African American worker. This victorious struggle in America’s early labor movement was also the doorway through which many civil rights gains were made.

The NAPRPPM  is locally recognized as a historic site and is a unique addition to the tourism sites of the Pullman community of Chicago, Illinois. The Museum is also nationally recognized as a valuable and unique African-American museum. The National A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter museum pays tribute to one of the most influential African-American leaders in history. A. Philip Randolph redefined American labor, American democracy, and American society, during a time when it was unsafe and unpopular. Randolph demanded that African-American people be fully and equally included in American society. A. Philip Randolph was an articulate, intelligent, and fair leader who devoted decades of his life to his vision of a more moral and civilized American society. A Philip Randolph was a great man, a great humanitarian, and a great American.