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91-693: It was acquired in 1965 by John H. Sengstacke , a major black publisher and owner of the Chicago Defender . He re-opened the paper in 1967 as the New Pittsburgh Courier , making it one of his four newspapers for the African American audience. The paper was founded by Edwin Nathaniel Harleston, who worked as a guard at the H. J. Heinz Company food packing plant in Pittsburgh. Harleston,

182-593: A Louisiana Creole from New Orleans and Los Angeles . They had three children, John Herman Henry Sengstacke III; Lewis Willis Sengstacke, named for Myrtle's side; and Robert Abbott Sengstacke , named in honor of his uncle. Myrtle was an activist in her own right, working at political fundraising, as well as cultural and art activities. In 1940, Sengstacke founded the National Newspaper Publishers Association , to bring together African-American publishers of newspapers. He served as president of

273-408: A builder of large, cast-in-place smokestacks, silos and chimneys. Wheelabrator-Frye retained both Pullman and Kellogg as direct subsidiaries. Later in 1982 Signal acquired Wheelabrator-Frye. In 1990, the entire Wheelabrator-Frye group was sold to Waste Management, Inc. The Pullman-Kellogg interests were spun off by Waste Management as Pullman Power Products Corporation, and by late 2004 that company

364-762: A company town and factory. Pullman's plan included an expectation that rent collected on the houses in the town would produce a 6% return on investment (ROI), but the ROI never exceeded 4– 4 + 1 ⁄ 2 %. The company built Pullman, Illinois on 4,000 acres (1,600 ha), 14 mi (23 km) south of Chicago, contracting Solon Spencer Beman for design and Nathan F. Barrett for landscaping. Both were considered experts in their respective fields. Beman interned under architect Richard Upjohn. Barrett landscaped areas in Staten Island and Tuxedo, New York, as well as Long Branch, New Jersey. George Pullman 's governing concept placed

455-563: A controlling interest in the Standard Steel Car Company . The vast majority were built for U.S. cities, with only 24 being supplied to Canadian cities and a total of 136 built for cities in South America. The last trolleybuses built were an order of 30 for Valparaíso, Chile , in late 1952. That city's Pullman trolley buses have far outlasted any others, and as of 2015 about a dozen were still in regular service there, four from

546-513: A former slave from St. Simon's Island, Georgia . She had a year-old son Robert, whom he treated as his own. Robert Abbott took his stepfather's surname as his middle name. The Sengstackes also had seven children together, including Alexander; they were half-siblings to Robert Abbott. Beginning in 1905, when Abbott had settled in Chicago after getting a law degree, he founded and published The Chicago Defender . It rapidly achieved high circulation in

637-457: A large freight car leasing operation under the parent company's control. Pullman, Inc., remained separate until a merger with Wheelabrator, then headed by CEO Michael D. Dingman , in late 1980, which led to the separation of Pullman interests in early and mid-1981. Operations of the Pullman Company sleeper cars ceased and all leases were terminated on December 31, 1968. On January 1, 1969,

728-512: A lawyer and public figure. In the early 1910s, a staff of four (Vann, a secretary, a sports editor, and an errand boy who also proof-read and handled mail) operated from a spare room above a funeral parlor in the Hill District. But in 1914, the Courier moved to real offices on Fourth Avenue. As editor, Vann wrote editorials encouraging readers to only patronize business that paid for advertisements in

819-594: A quieter and smoother ride than conventional cast iron wheels from 1867 to 1915. Once a household name due to their large market share, the Pullman Company is also known for the bitter Pullman Strike staged by their workers and union leaders in 1894. During an economic downturn , Pullman reduced hours and wages but not rents, precipitating the strike. Workers joined the American Railway Union , led by Eugene V. Debs . After George Pullman's death in 1897, Robert Todd Lincoln , son of Abraham Lincoln , became

910-427: A self-published poet, began printing the paper at his own expense in 1907. Generally about two pages, it was primarily a vehicle for Harleston's work. He printed around ten copies, which he sold for five cents apiece. In 1909, Edward Penman, Hepburn Carter, Scott Wood Jr., and Harvey Tanner joined Harleston to run the paper, although they did not contribute financially. They named the paper as Pittsburgh Courier , after

1001-463: A separate company called Pullman Technology, Inc., in 1982. Using the Transit America trade name, Pullman Technology continued to market its Comet car design (first built for New Jersey Department of Transportation in 1970) for commuter operations until 1987, when Bombardier purchased Pullman Technology to gain control of its designs and patents. As of late 2004, Pullman Technology, Inc., remained

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1092-573: A subsidiary of Bombardier. Pullman, Inc., spun off its large fleet of leased freight rail cars in April 1981 as Pullman Leasing Company, which later became part of ITEL Leasing , retaining the original PLCX reporting mark . ITEL Rail Leasing (including the PLCX reporting mark) was later divested to GE Rail Services . In mid-1981, Pullman, Inc., spun off its freight car manufacturing interests as Pullman Transportation Company. Several plants were closed and in 1984,

1183-444: A train trip from Buffalo to Westfield, New York , George Pullman was inspired to design an improved passenger railcar which contained sleeper berths for all its passengers. During the day, the upper berth was folded up overhead similar to a present-day airliner's overhead luggage compartment. At night, the upper berth folded down and the 2 facing seats below it folded over to provide a relatively comfortable lower berth. Although this

1274-456: A transformative moment in American labor history. At the company's peak in the early 20th century, its cars accommodated 26 million people a year, and it in effect operated "the largest hotel in the world". Its production workers initially lived in a planned worker community, known as a company town , named Pullman, Chicago . Pullman developed the sleeping car , which carried his name into

1365-817: The Michigan Chronicle in Detroit ; the Tri-State Defender in Memphis, Tennessee ; and acquired the Pittsburgh Courier in 1966, re–opening it the next year as the New Pittsburgh Courier . Sengstacke worked with President Franklin D. Roosevelt to have African-American reporters admitted to presidential press conferences. He pressed for opportunities in the United States Postal Service for African Americans. One of Sengstacke's major political goals

1456-636: The Post and Courier of Charleston, South Carolina , Harleston's hometown. Harleston prepared the copy of the first issue of the Courier at his home, and Penman and Carter ordered five hundred copies from a printer in Philadelphia . The five men sold most of the copies of this issue throughout the Hill District on January 5, 1910. During this period, Courier issues were four pages in length. In early March 1910, Robert Lee Vann drew up incorporation papers for

1547-943: The Woodville Times , founded by his namesake grandfather. Abbott groomed Sengstacke to take over the Chicago Defender, paying for his nephew's education at Hampton Institute , his own alma mater and a historically black college . During the summers Sengstacke worked on the Defender, graduating from Hampton in 1934. Abbott also subsidized his nephew's additional studies at the Mergenthaler Linotype School, The Chicago School of Printing, Northwestern University, and Ohio State University. Abbott appointed Sengstacke as vice president and general manager of The Robert S. Abbott Publishing Company in 1936, after he had assisted as an aide. In 1939 Sengstacke married Myrtle Elizabeth Picou,

1638-647: The Courier ' s four editions (local, northern, eastern, and southern) were distributed in all 48 states and internationally, and by 1938, the paper was the largest American black weekly, with a circulation of 250,000. Vann legitimized the Courier with a professional staff, national advertisements, a dedicated printing plant, and wide circulation. Following Vann's death in late 1940, close associate Ira Lewis filled his role as president and executive editor. The Courier maintained its upward trajectory, reaching an all-time circulation high of 357,000 in 1947. When Lewis died in 1948, Vann's widow, Jessie Mathews Vann, assumed

1729-528: The Courier and began writing articles. Although the Courier was being printed by the Union News Company in Pittsburgh to save money, by March Harleston began to run out of money for the paper. Through Vann's connections, the paper was able to attract some wealthy investors, including Cumberland Willis Posey Sr. On May 10, 1910, the Pittsburgh Courier was formally incorporated, with Vann handling

1820-503: The Courier and ran contests to attempt to increase circulation. In his Christmas editorial at the end of 1914, Vann wrote of the paper's intent to "abolish every vestige of Jim Crowism in Pittsburgh." In the 1920s, Vann made efforts to improve the quality of the news included in the growing paper. In November 1925, the Courier joined the Associated Negro Press, the news collective of African American publications. Under Vann,

1911-553: The Courier for 33 years. The Courier was the first to spot the talent of a young William Gardner Smith , who was hired by the Courier while still in high school. This was in 1943, some years before he gained attention as an expatriate novelist and journalist living in France . Trezzvant Anderson covered the early years of the civil rights movement for the paper. The Pittsburgh Courier published comic strips , even syndicating some to other black newspapers. The first strip of note

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2002-457: The Courier in 1966. He re-opened it in 1967 as the New Pittsburgh Courier . John H. Sengstacke John Herman Henry Sengstacke (November 25, 1912 – May 28, 1997) was an American newspaper publisher and owner of the largest chain of African-American oriented newspapers in the United States. Sengstacke was also a civil rights activist and worked for a strong black press, founding

2093-476: The Courier partnered with the Smith-Mann Syndicate to publish a weekly color comics section called Carousel , featuring a line-up of strips aimed at an African American audience. These strips included: Many of the strips continued on as daily, black-and-white strips after Carousel ceased. John H. Sengstacke , publisher of The Chicago Defender and a national figure for black newspapers, closed

2184-463: The Courier published sixteen regional editions, totaling 250,000 copies. This drop in circulation in just six years illustrates the Courier 's decline. The Courier ' s decline can be attributed in large part to advances during the Civil Rights Movement , because as white publications included more African American news, circulation steadily fell. Also, the paper struggled without

2275-435: The National Newspaper Publishers Association in 1940, to unify and strengthen African-American owned papers. Sengstacke served seven terms as president of the association, which by the early 21st century had 200 members. A nephew of newspaper founder, Robert Sengstacke Abbott , Sengstacke was Abbott's designated heir to take over the Chicago Defender , which he did after his uncle's death in 1940. Sengstacke also published

2366-557: The Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company . Pullman-Standard remained in the rail car manufacturing business until 1982. Standard Steel Car Co., had been organized on January 2, 1902, to operate a railroad car manufacturing facility at Butler, Pennsylvania , and, after 1906, a facility at Hammond, Indiana , was reorganized as a subsidiary of Pullman, Inc., on March 1, 1930. In 1940, just as orders for lightweight cars were increasing and sleeping car traffic

2457-490: The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 . In 1932, Vann officially put the Courier behind the party realignment of African Americans. He urged readers to vote for Democrats , writing, "My friends, go home and turn Lincoln 's picture to the wall." In 1927, the Courier ' s New York City branch manager, Floyd J. Calvin, began broadcasting the weekly " Pittsburgh Courier Hour" on New York radio. By 1928,

2548-591: The United States Armed Forces . Vann saw this as an achievable step on the path to integration of the military, but the NAACP leadership, primarily Walter White, publicly disagreed with this half-measure, despite the protests of Thurgood Marshall . As a result of the Courier 's influence and Vann's political clout, New York Congressman Hamilton Fish successfully added an amendment prohibiting racial discrimination in selection and training of men drafted to

2639-610: The United States Congress via the Periodical Press Galleries of the United States Congress . He remained executive editor until 1965. In 1965, Prattis retired from the Courier after John H. Sengstacke purchased the ailing paper. Some prominent contributors to the Courier were Joel Augustus Rogers , who worked as a journalist for the Courier in the 1920s, and Sam Milai , editorial cartoonist for

2730-471: The "Local News" section of the Courier covered the social lives of the upper- and middle-class members of the Hill District. This included accounts of vacations, marriages, and parties of prominent families and the goings on of local groups, such as the Pittsburgh Frogs . Vann stirred up controversy—and 10,000 new readers—by hiring George Schuyler in 1925, whose editorials and opinions made him known as

2821-504: The "black H. L. Mencken " (who was a Courier subscriber). In addition to Schuyler's contributions, the paper also ran special features by writers such as Joel Augustus Rogers and serialized novels, such as Walter Francis White 's Fire in the Flint . Sports was well covered by writers including Chester L. Washington , who began writing for the paper while still in high school in Pittsburgh, Wendell Smith , and Cumberland Posey , son of one of

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2912-572: The 1955 Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama, using Rosa Parks ' arrest as a catalyst and rallying cry to help organize it. Nixon, whose duties as a porter often saw him out of town for various lengths of time, had to enlist the help of a young, energetic black minister new to Montgomery to run the boycott in his absence: the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Pullman's streetcar building period lasted from 1891 until 1951. The company one

3003-455: The 1980s. Pullman did not just manufacture the cars, it also operated them on most of the railroads in the United States, paying railroad companies to couple the cars to trains. In return, by the mid-20th century, these railroads would own Pullman outright. A labor union associated with the company, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters , founded and organized by A. Philip Randolph , was one of

3094-590: The Courier and the Negro cause. She will be a guiding force in leading this paper to bigger and better things in the future. Two years later, the paper won the John B. Russwurm Award for the best national African-American newspaper. John Sengstacke died on May 28, 1997. His chain of newspapers was run under a family trust until 2003. It was sold to Real Times, whose investors included people with family and business ties to him. Among

3185-551: The Florence Hotel was the only place within the town limits where alcohol could be served and consumed. In the residential section, 150 acres (61 ha) were dedicated to tenements, flats and single-family homes with rents from $ 0.50 to $ 0.75 per month ($ 16 to $ 24 in 2023 adjusted for inflation). The residences featured modern conveniences such as gas, running water, indoor sewage plumbing and regular garbage removal. By 1884, there were more than 1,400 tenements and flats. By July of

3276-698: The Hill District, better education for black students, and equal employment and union opportunities. However, Vann often used his Courier editorials to publicly fight with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and W. E. B. Du Bois over issues such as President Calvin Coolidge 's grants of clemency to black soldiers involved in the Houston Riot and Vann's allegations that James Weldon Johnson embezzled money for personal use from

3367-454: The NAACP and the Garland Fund . This disharmony was resolved in 1929 by published apologies by Vann, Du Bois, and Johnson, and within the decade, Du Bois became a regular Courier contributor. But in 1938, Vann's Courier ended up at odds with the NAACP once again. Vann, through national campaigns and contact with President Franklin D. Roosevelt pursued inclusion of African American units in

3458-527: The Pullman Co. reduced wages and laid off employees. Though wages were reduced, residential utility rates and rents remained unchanged. On May 11, 1894, the employees of the Pullman Co. walked off the job initiating the Pullman Strike . Thirty people were killed as a result of the strikes and sabotage. The loss of pride after the strike stayed with the town long afterward. In February 1904, the Pullman Company

3549-638: The Pullman Company was dissolved and all assets were liquidated. (The most visible result on many railroads, including Union Pacific, was that the Pullman name was removed from the letterboard of all Pullman-owned cars.) An auction of all Pullman remaining assets was held at the Pullman plant in Chicago in early 1970. The Pullman, Inc., company remained in place until 1981 or 1982 to close out all remaining liabilities and claims, operating from an office in Denver . The passenger car designs of Pullman-Standard were spun off into

3640-556: The Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company (manufacturing). After three years of negotiations, the Pullman Company was sold to a consortium of 57 railroads for approximately US$ 40 million. In 1943, Pullman Standard established a shipbuilding division and entered wartime small ship design and construction. The yard was located near Lake Calumet in Chicago , on the north side of 130th Street. Pullman built

3731-565: The Rust Division of what is today Washington Group International , a specialty contracting firm that competes directly with Halliburton worldwide. Washington Group International is the successor to the Morrison Knudsen civil engineering and contracting corporation, and is also the owner of Montana Rail Link . After the last of the Kellogg interests of Pullman-Kellogg were spun off, and after

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3822-521: The South, some 5 million from 1940 to 1970. The second wave of migration was chiefly to California and other West Coast cities, as people were attracted by jobs in the defense industry. In the postwar period, veterans and other African Americans pressed for civil rights in the South, where most black citizens had been disenfranchised since the turn of the century, kept in second-class status under Jim Crow , confined to segregated spaces. In 1956, Sengstacke turned

3913-574: The U.S. market for PCC cars, with the balance of around 25% being supplied by Pullman. In addition to rail vehicles, Pullman-Standard also manufactured trolley buses – or trolley coaches , as they were more commonly known at the time – starting in 1931 and concluding in late 1952. A total of 2,007 trolley buses were built by the company. Production took place at a former Osgood Bradley Car Company plant in Worcester, Massachusetts, which had come under Pullman control as part of its 1929/30 acquisition of

4004-472: The United States. The legacy of Pullman porters goes beyond the railway. A. Philip Randolph took the lessons learned and experience gained in organizing the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters to help organize the nascent black civil rights movement . Likewise, E.D. Nixon , a Pullman porter and leader of a local chapter of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, worked with one of his employees to help start

4095-502: The article offered praise for creating an elevated environment for its workers, it criticized the all-encompassing influence of the company ultimately concluding that "Pullman is un-American" and "benevolent, well-wishing feudalism." During the Panic of 1893, Pullman closed his manufacturing plant in Detroit to move all manufacturing to Pullman. Due to the soft economic conditions of this period,

4186-400: The association for seven term, seeking to bring publishers together to increase their voice in the industry. It has grown to have 200 members in the 21st century. In 1940, Abbott died and John Sengstacke inherited his uncle's newspaper, becoming president of the company. His role was challenged by Edna Abbott, his uncle's widow, and he had to continue a suit for 10 years before gaining control of

4277-730: The boats in 40-ton blocks which were assembled in a fabrication shop on 111th Street and moved to the yard on gondola cars. In two years, the company built 34 Corvette Patrol Craft, Escorts (PCEs), which were 180 feet long and weighed 640 tons, and 44 Landing Ship, Medium (LSMs), which were 203 feet long and weighed 520 tons. Pullman ranked 56th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts. Pullman-Standard built its last sleeping car in 1956 and its last lightweight passenger cars in 1965, an order of ten coaches for Kansas City Southern . The company continued to market and build cars for commuter rail and subway service and Superliners for Amtrak as late as

4368-479: The company was ordered to divest itself of one of its two lines of sleeping car businesses after having acquired all of its competitors. After the 1944 breakup, Pullman, Inc., remained in place as the parent company, with the following subsidiaries: The Pullman Company for passenger car operations (but not passenger car ownership, which was passed to member railroads), and Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Co., for passenger car and freight car manufacturing; along with

4459-517: The company's president. In 1922, Haskell & Barker Car Manufacturing was acquired and in 1924 was merged with the other car manufacturing units of Pullman, and a new company was formed, Pullman Car & Manufacturing Company. In 1927, Pullman Company was created as a separate company and Pullman Incorporated was established as a holding company. In 1930, Pullman purchased the Standard Steel Car Company conglomerate which included Osgood Bradley , Standard Motor Truck, and Siems-Stembel. In 1934, it

4550-577: The early 20th century as the African-American population expanded in Chicago and other northern cities by the Great Migration . It became known as the major Black newspaper of the country, and Abbott became a millionaire by 1918. When his nephew John H.H. Sengstacke was young, Abbott noticed his interest and work on his father's newspaper, and designated him as Abbott's successor for the Chicago Defender. Young John worked with his father Alexander on

4641-760: The federal government. Considerable discrimination had taken place due to the political power of the Solid South ; its white conservative Democrats had strong influence in Congress due to having disenfranchised African Americans in the South. In 1947, Sengstacke helped co-found Americans for Democratic Action with: Joseph Alsop , Stewart Alsop , Chester Bowles , John Kenneth Galbraith , Leon Henderson , Hubert Humphrey James I. Loeb , Reinhold Niebuhr , Joseph P. Lash , Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. , Walter Reuther , Eleanor Roosevelt , Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. , and Wilson W. Wyatt One of Sengstacke's major goals at

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4732-575: The financial expertise of the late Ira Lewis. P.L. Prattis , a career journalist, rose from city editor in 1936, to managing editor in 1948, to executive editor of the Pittsburgh Courier in 1956. In 1947, Prattis was unanimously granted membership in the US Senate and House press galleries by the executive committee of the Periodical Correspondents Association. That year he was the first African American journalist permitted to enter

4823-552: The first investors. The sports coverage focused on African American leagues, sometimes to the exclusion of white sporting events in Pittsburgh, including the 1927 World Series . The Courier also worked as a tool for social progress. Most significantly, the paper extensively covered the injustices on African Americans perpetrated by the Pullman Company and supported the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters . Vann wrote to gain support for causes such as improved housing conditions in

4914-409: The following year, the population exceeded 8,600. In charge of the company town was the town agent who was responsible for all services and businesses including street and building maintenance, gas and water works, fire protection, the hotel, sewage farm, and the nursery and greenhouse. Reporting to the town agent were nine department heads and approximately 300 men. There were no elections except for

5005-423: The late 1960s Sengstacke purchased the financially ailing black newspaper, the Pittsburgh Courier , which had achieved a national reputation during the 1930s and 1940s. It is considered to have been the most influential black newspaper in the country. He re-opened it as the New Pittsburgh Courier in 1967. He continued to be a leader in building black journalism. In 1974 Sengstacke appointed Hazel B. Garland as

5096-588: The late 1970s and early 1980s. Beginning in 1975, Pullman started delivery of the massive 754 75 ft (23 m) stainless steel subway cars to the New York City Transit Authority . Designated R46 by their procurement contract, these cars, along with the R44 subway car built by St. Louis Car Company , were designed for 70 mph (110 km/h) speeds in the Second Avenue Subway . After it

5187-413: The legal means. During the summer, the paper was expanded from four to eight pages, but struggled with circulation and financial solvency due to a small market and lack of interested advertisers. In the fall of 1910, Harleston left the paper for financial and creative reasons. Vann became editor, a position he would hold until his death in 1940. The Courier under Vann prominently featured Vann's work as

5278-408: The most powerful African-American political entities of the 20th century. The company also built thousands of streetcars and trolley buses for use in cities. Post- WWII changes in automobile and airplane transport led to a steep decline in the company's fortunes. It collapsed in 1968, with a successor company continuing operations until 1981. After spending the night sleeping in his seat on

5369-467: The national level was to desegregate the armed forces, particularly given the sacrifices of African Americans in the Armed Forces during World War II. President Harry Truman named Sengstacke to the commission he formed in 1948 to integrate the military, which started in 1949. The Great Migration had continued during and after the war years until 1970, with a total of 6.5 million African Americans leaving

5460-533: The new editor-in-chief of the New Pittsburgh Courier ; she was the former city editor and the first African-American woman to be managing editor of a national newspaper. When asked about his decision, Sengstacke replied: I have supreme confidence in Hazel, and believe that she will continue to do a great job as editor-in-chief as she did as city editor. She has proven herself over the many years of dedication to

5551-442: The new owners was Sengstacke's nephew Thomas Sengstacke Picou. In 2002, he said his plans for the New Pittsburgh Courier included more emphasis on in-depth features and arts, creating a web presence — which neither it nor the Defender had at the time — and changing its political outlook from liberal to "conservative independence". Books: Articles: Pullman Company The Pullman Company , founded by George Pullman ,

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5642-426: The newspaper company. Through that period, the Defender never missed an issue. During the years of World War II, Sengstacke acted as a national spokesmen for African-American journalism and publishers. He worked with President Franklin D. Roosevelt to ensure that African-American reporters were admitted to presidential press conferences. He also worked to persuade the president to expand opportunities for blacks in

5733-450: The passengers and the Pullman company itself, the porters organized and became the first African-American labor union. Founded by A. Philip Randolph the porters formed the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), which after years of effort, fought for and won a collective bargaining agreement in 1937. At its height the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters had a membership of over 18,000 passenger railway workers across Canada, Mexico, and

5824-440: The perfect servants. This led the company to hire black men (many, if not all, of whom were newly freed chattel slaves) almost exclusively for the porter positions. This decision by Pullman wasn't one of altruism but one primarily driven by economics: Pullman paid the black porters a pittance, forcing them to rely on tips from their white clientele for most of their earnings. This allowed the company to increase profits by minimizing

5915-460: The railcar manufacturing plants were sold, and with the formal dissolution of the old Pullman Company (the operating company from the 1944 split), the remaining portions of the Pullman interests were spun off in May 1985 by Signal into a new Pullman Company. In November 1985, Pullman bought Peabody International and the new company took the new name of Pullman Peabody. In April 1987 (after Pullman Technology

6006-552: The remaining railcar manufacturing plants and the Pullman-Standard freight car designs and patents were sold to Trinity Industries . After separating itself from its rail car manufacturing interests, Pullman, Inc., continued as a diversified corporation, with later mergers and acquisitions, including a merger in late 1980 with Wheelabrator-Frye, Inc., in which Pullman became a subsidiary of Wheelabrator-Frye, Inc. In January 1982, Wheelabrator-Frye merged with M. W. Kellogg Company ,

6097-433: The role of president-treasurer. Upon the entrance of the United States into World War Two, the editors of the Pittsburgh Courier nominated African American journalist Frank E. Bolden to be an accredited war correspondent . Bolden was one of only two African American war correspondents accepted, and became a nationally recognized journalist, in addition to being city editor of the Courier from 1956 until 1962. In 1953,

6188-610: The school board, as all officials were selected by Pullman. After its completion, the Pullman company town attracted national attention. Many critics praised Pullman's concept and planning. One newspaper article titled "The Arcadian City: Pullman, the Ideal City of the World" praised the town as "the youngest and most perfect city in the world, Pullman; beautiful in every belonging." In February 1885, Harper's Monthly published and article by Richard T. Ely entitled "Pullman: A Social Study". Though

6279-420: The strip was retitled Facts About The Negro , continuing for the rest of the Courier ' s run. Jackie Ormes ' Torchy , which ran in the Courier from May 1, 1937, to April 30, 1938, was the first syndicated strip by a black woman. Other notable strips published in the Courier included Jay Jackson's As Others See Us and Jackie Ormes' Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger (1945–1956). From August 1950 to August 1954,

6370-409: The thoroughfare it is located on: Pullman Avenue. Another site was Pullman Car & Manufacturing Corp. of Bessemer , Alabama , incorporated on January 15, 1929. The Pullman Company was also noted for its porters . The porters served first-class passengers traveling in the luxurious Pullman sleeping cars. When George Pullman began hiring porters in 1868, he sought people who had been trained to be

6461-450: The town not within the city limits of Chicago but in the adjoining town of Hyde Park . On April 24, 1880, groundwork began. Throughout construction, Pullman sought to minimize costs and maximize efficiency adopting techniques of mass production whenever possible. Some of the earliest departments and shops created included painting, iron, and woodworking. These could then be employed to contribute to continuing construction. By January 1, 1881,

6552-498: The town was ready for its first resident. A foreman from the Pullman Company's Detroit shop, Lee Benson, moved his wife, child, and sister into the town. Building exteriors were red brick with limestone trim. Interiors featured high ceilings and large windows. Interior walls were purposefully painted in light colors to provide a cheerful environment. When completed, the town included a library, theater, hotel, church, market, sewage farm, park, and many residential buildings. The bar in

6643-509: The wages paid to one of its most important, and numerous, positions. Being a Pullman Porter was seen as safe, steady work and allowed tens of thousands of African-Americans access to middle-class life . This had little to do with the wages being paid to them by Pullman, and more to do with the reliable income stream. Former slaves working in a servile position were treated harshly, and were frequently subject to verbal and physical abuse. In 1925, after decades of discrimination and mistreatment by

6734-456: The weekly Chicago Defender into a daily, to keep up with changing conditions and report on black progress. At that time, The Chicago Defender was still the nation's largest African American-owned daily paper. Sengstacke also owned the Michigan Chronicle in Detroit , Michigan , where many blacks worked in the auto industry, and the Tri-State Defender in Memphis, Tennessee , another center of African-American population and businesses. In

6825-676: Was Sunny Boy Sam , originally by Wilbert Holloway , which launched in 1928 and continued past the demise of the Courier . The Courier also published Your History , written by Joel Augustus Rogers and originally illustrated by George L. Lee. Patterned after the look of Robert Ripley ' s popular Believe It or Not cartoons, multiple vignettes in each cartoon episode recounted short items about African Americans from Rogers' research. Your History ran from November 10, 1934, to July 31, 1937. It returned in November 1940, illustrated by long-time Courier editorial cartoonist Sam Milai . In 1962

6916-612: Was deferred in 1975, the Transit Authority assigned the cars to other subway services. Pullman also built subway cars for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority , which assigned them to the Red Line. Pullman-Standard was spun off from Pullman, Inc., as Pullman Technology, Inc., in 1981, and was sold to Bombardier in 1987. In United States v. Pullman Co. , 50 F. Supp. 123, 126, 137 (E.D. Pa. 1943),

7007-492: Was a manufacturer of railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States . Through rapid late-19th century development of mass production and takeover of rivals, the company developed a virtual monopoly on production and ownership of sleeping cars . During a severe economic downturn, the 1894 Pullman Strike by company workers proved to be

7098-687: Was a somewhat spartan accommodation by today's standards, it was a great improvement on the previous layout. Curtains provided privacy, and there were washrooms at each end of the car for men and women. The first Pullman coach was built at the Chicago & Alton shops in Bloomington, Illinois in the spring of 1859 with the permission of Chicago & Alton President Joel A. Matteson . Pullman established his company in 1862 and built luxury sleeping cars which featured carpeting, draperies, upholstered chairs, libraries, card tables and an unparalleled level of customer service. Patented paper car wheels provided

7189-681: Was doing business as Pullman Power LLC, a subsidiary of Structural Group, a specialty contractor. As a side note, other construction engineering portions of Pullman-Kellogg were spun off as a new M. W. Kellogg Corporation, and in December 1998, became part of the merger that formed Kellogg, Brown & Root , a specialty contractor which itself was later sold to Halliburton , an oil well servicing company. In an eventual competitive move, other Kellogg engineering interests were merged with Rust Engineering becoming Kellogg Rust, which itself became The Henley Group , and later Rust International before it became

7280-809: Was established as a National Monument by President Barack Obama. The Pullman Company operated several facilities in other areas of the US. One of these was the Pullman Shops in Richmond, California , which was linked to the mainline tracks of both the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe , servicing their passenger equipment from throughout the Western US. The main building of the Richmond Pullman Shops still exists, as does

7371-595: Was formed on June 21, 1927. The best years for Pullman were the mid-1920s. In 1925, the fleet grew to 9800 cars. Twenty-eight thousand conductors and twelve thousand porters were employed by the Pullman Co. Pullman built its last standard heavyweight sleeping car in February 1931. Pullman purchased controlling interest in Standard Steel Car Company in 1929, and on December 26, 1934, Pullman Car & Manufacturing, along with several other Pullman, Inc. subsidiaries, merged with Standard Steel Car Co. and its subsidiaries to form

7462-493: Was given a court order to sell the company town but delayed compliance until 1907. Today, Pullman is a Chicago neighborhood , and a historical landmark district on the state , National Historic Landmark and National Register of Historic Places lists. In 2014, the National Park Service initially considered the concept of turning Pullman into a new, urban National Park. On February 19, 2015, Pullman's company town

7553-487: Was growing, the United States Department of Justice filed an anti-trust complaint against Pullman Incorporated in the U.S. District Court at Philadelphia (Civil Action No. 994). The federal government sought to separate the company's sleeping car operations from its manufacturing activities. In 1944, the court concurred, ordering Pullman Incorporated to divest itself of either the Pullman Company (operating) or

7644-635: Was merged with Pullman Car & Manufacturing Company to be known as Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company . The company closed its factory in the Pullman neighborhood of Chicago in 1955. The company ceased production after the Amtrak Superliner cars in 1982 and its remaining designs were purchased in 1987 when it was absorbed by Bombardier . The original Pullman Palace Car Co. had been organized on February 22, 1867. On January 1, 1900, after buying numerous associated and competing companies, it

7735-482: Was named for his paternal grandfather, John H. Sengstacke, a Congregationalist minister, teacher and publisher. The elder Sengstacke was the son of Herman Sengstacke, a German sea captain, and his wife Tama Melrose, a former slave from West Africa whose freedom he purchased in Georgia. She died young after the birth of their daughter. Sengstacke returned to Germany, taking his mixed-race children for relatives to raise while he

7826-510: Was on ships. Later, Sengstacke and his son returned to the US. Several years later, John H. Sengstacke was ordained as a Congregationalist minister. After settling in Woodville, now a neighborhood of Savannah, Georgia , he became a teacher to improve black education, and a publisher of two local newspapers, including the Woodville Times. Sengstacke had married the widow Flora Butler Abbott,

7917-544: Was one of just three builders (and one of only two in the U.S.) of the PCC streetcar , a standardized type of streetcar purchased by numerous North American transit systems between 1936 and 1952 and nearly 5,000 of which were constructed. Pullman built the body of the very first all-new PCC car, a prototype called "model B", in 1934, but the first production-series Pullman PCC cars were not built until 1938 (and delivered in early 1939). The St. Louis Car Company captured about 75% of

8008-552: Was reorganized as The Pullman Co., characterized by its trademark phrase, "Travel and Sleep in Safety and Comfort." In 1924, the Pullman Car & Manufacturing Corporation was organized from the previous Pullman manufacturing department and recently acquired Haskell & Barker Car Company, to consolidate the car building interests of The Pullman Co. The parent company, The Pullman Co. was established as its own company and Pullman, Inc.,

8099-459: Was sold to Bombardier), the name was changed back to Pullman Company. In July 1987 the company acquired Clevite Industries . By 1996, Pullman Co., with its Clevite subsidiary, was almost solely a supplier of automotive elastomer (rubber) parts, and in July 1996 the company was sold to Tenneco . As of late 2004, Pullman Co. (now the brand name Clevite), as a manufacturer of automotive elastomer products,

8190-544: Was still under the control of Tenneco Automotive. In 1877, the United States experienced the Great Railroad Strike. Part of its legacy included more powerful unions and a tendency for employers to consider the broader well-being of their employees. Pullman's objective in building a company town was to attract a superior type of employee and further elevate these individuals by excluding baneful influences. In late April 1880, George Pullman announced his plans to build

8281-600: Was to desegregate the armed forces. President Harry Truman supported this goal, naming Sengstacke to the commission he formed in 1948 to integrate the military. Sengstacke died in 1997 at age 84. In 2000, he was posthumously presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by U.S. President Bill Clinton . John Herman Henry Sengstacke was born in Savannah , Georgia , to Herman Alexander (called Alexander) Sengstacke and his wife Rosa Mae Davis on November 25, 1912. He

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