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Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Commemorative Plaque, 2017 

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Original JPG File

8400 × 6000 pixels (50.4 MP)

71.1 cm × 50.8 cm @ 300 PPI

6.5 MB Restricted

Low resolution print

2000 × 1429 pixels (2.86 MP)

16.9 cm × 12.1 cm @ 300 PPI

778 KB Restricted

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1120 × 800 pixels (0.9 MP)

9.5 cm × 6.8 cm @ 300 PPI

318 KB Restricted
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Resource details

Resource ID

5251

Access

Open

Credit Line

Heritage Toronto

Date of Creation

2017

Description

Beginning in the 1880s, this site was, for almost 100 years, a large coach yard where sleeping car porters working for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) prepared passenger cars for travel across Canada that could take up to four days and three nights. Black men were preferred for the job because of their long history in domestic service to whites. Porters working for Canadian railways came from Black communities in Canada, but were also recruited from the United States and the Caribbean.

Porters faced institutional racism in all aspects of their work: their pay was lower, they were barred from promotions to supervisory positions, and they were excluded from white railway workers’ unions. They began to organize, most successfully in 1939, by joining forces with the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), an American union created in 1925.

On May 18, 1945, the BSCP became the first Black union in Canada to sign an agreement with its white employer, the CPR. Among other benefits, porters’ starting salaries increased, they received pay for downtime on the road, and, after 1955, they could be promoted to Sleeping Car Conductor.

The BCSP's organizing efforts and civil rights advocacy left a powerful legacy that influenced human rights policy and labour relations in Canada.

Program Category

Historical Plaques

Rights

Heritage Toronto

Historical Themes

Black Heritage, Labour History

Time Period

1835-1899, 1900-1953

Caption

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Commemorative Plaque, 2017

Consent management
License management
Location Data

Marker lat / long: 43.641794, -79.386349 (WGS84)

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