The Society for the Prevention of Calling Sleeping Car Porters "George" (SPCSCPG) was an association composed largely of railway sleeping car porters in the United States to promote the elimination of the degrading and racist practice of referring to all porters by the name "George" regardless of their actual name. The name refers to George Pullman, of the Pullman Company, which at one time manufactured and operated a large proportion of all the sleeping cars in North America. Porters were overwhelmingly African American, and the practice presumably derived from the old custom of naming slaves after their masters, in this case porters being regarded as servants of George Pullman. The society was initiated by white railway employees actually named George, who were either annoyed by the practice, or thought that founding the society would be an amusing joke. At its peak, the society had 31,000 members, including King George V of the United Kingdom, American baseball player George Herman "Babe" Ruth, and French politician Georges Clemenceau.[1]
See also
Sources
- Tye, Larry. Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class. Henry Holt: 2004 ISBN 0-8050-7075-3.
- Tye, Larry. "Choosing Servility To Staff America's Trains", AFP Reporter (volume 21, number 1), 2003. Retrieved June 21, 2007.
- "Names make news." December 07, 1936, Time Magazine. Retrieved June 21, 2007.
