This year’s Women’s History Month will end with a special celebration in Chicago honoring the legacy of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), the female extension of the first chartered Black labor union in the U.S.
The BSCP was chartered under the American Federation of Labor in 1925: it unionized Black men who worked as porters on Pullman railroad cars in the early 20th century. The Ladies Auxiliary consisted of wives and female relatives who actively raised funds and coordinated organizing efforts for the BSCP, especially when the male railroad porters were on work assignments and unable to take on such tasks.
On Saturday, March 29, there will be a groundbreaking for the BSCP Ladies Auxiliary Women’s History Museum, the latest addition to a stretch of land in Chicago’s historic South Side Pullman community neighborhood. It’s an area that National A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum (NAPRPPM) directors are calling “A. Philip Randolph’s Way.” With the Pullman Porter Museum, the Ladies Auxiliary Museum, and more museums and businesses planned for the area, Pullman Porter Museum directors say they are creating the first Black Labor History Tourism District in America.
“What we’re doing, well, we’re multitasking,” Dr. Lyn Hughes, founder of the NAPRPPM, told the AmNews. “We’re actually doing two things at once because we’re expanding the existing A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum. In addition to that, we’re adding the Ladies Auxiliary Women’s History Museum. And that’s just one of them. On Randolph’s way, there will be those two institutions, but there are others. We want to have a series of businesses and for-profit entities all on the same block.”
Construction of the new museum and efforts to expand the labor history district are being self-funded. Dr. Hughes said the Ladies Auxiliary Museum is not underwritten by city, state, or federal funds –– the museum is operating based on admission fees, private funding sources, and community donations.
“We intentionally chose to operate on an entrepreneurial model because I think that, and maybe I’m wrong, but as the founder, I felt there would be no one else standing there to say what we couldn’t do. We decided that if we operated on an entrepreneurial model, we would be able to successfully start and complete our intent without interruption or having to be concerned about if a funder didn’t like what we’d be doing, and they would cut the funding off. So, if we didn’t have any funding that they could cut off, we could go full blast and do what we wanted to do.”
Construction drawings for the Ladies Auxiliary Museum were put together three years ago. But at the time, the plans were in place without the resources to buy a property. Then, two years ago, museum directors found out about a property a few doors down from the Pullman Porters Museum that was being sold by Illinois’ Cook County Land Bank. The museum was able to acquire the property and just closed on it last month. After putting the permits through, they are now ready to build.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Pullman Porter Museum, which now features a Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. Civil Rights Wing. The upcoming Ladies Auxiliary Museum will include a Madame C. J. Walker Wing, alongside exhibits honoring figures like former U.S. Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm and former U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun. Plans are for the district to also include a Jesse White Labor History Research Library, named to honor the now-former Illinois Secretary of State.
The Ladies Auxiliary Museum is a tribute to Black women in particular, Dr. Hughes points out. “Not to say that we’re separating ourselves, but there’s no reason why we can’t celebrate Black women,” she said. “The point is that it’s very intentional because we like to see young Black children see what they could be if they wanted to.”