Join TransAfrica and BloomBars to celebrate February as African American History Month with the film Miles of Smiles, Years of Struggle (1982, 58 min), by Paul Wagner. Miles of Smiles, Years of Struggle tells the untold story of the Pullman porters who organized America’s first Black trade union – the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
Miles of Smiles describes the harsh discrimination which lay behind the porters' smiling service. Narrator Rosina Tucker, a 100 year old union organizer and porter's widow, describes how after a 12 year struggle led by A. Philip Randolph, the porters won the first contract ever negotiated with black workers. This inspiring story of the Pullman porters addresses larger issues of work, race and dignity and provides one of the few accounts of African American life between the Civil War and the modern Civil Rights movement.
Our film will be followed by audience discussion moderated by Mwiza Munthali, the Public Outreach Director of TransAfrica.