A century ago, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters launched a union drive against a railroad giant, changing the course of the twentieth century and forever entwining the causes of labor and black civil rights.

The fact that the meeting was even happening was enough to produce an air of subversive excitement. On August 25, 1925, a century ago this year, black sleeping car porters hoping to form a union at the Pullman Company packed the room at the Elks Hall in Harlem. Though we’ll never know how many, Pullman company spies were undoubtedly among the audience.

In fact, to combat the presence of these spies, no porters even spoke during the meeting. Instead, A. Philip Randolph, then an eccentric soapbox socialist with a string of failed unionization attempts behind him, led the meeting

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