Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Vancouver Branch
Published: March 5, 2018
Authors: BC Labour Heritage Centre
Vancouver’s Strathcona neighbourhood was a vibrant and diverse community in the 1930s, a mix of Black and Chinese families, businesses and entertainment venues. Opportunities were few for Black workers looking for employment in the city after high school or university, and jobs were limited. Strathcona was located near the terminus of the Canadian Northern Railway, and many Blacks were employed as sleeping car porters, an occupation that was traditionally Black.
Four members of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Canadian Pacific Railroad Division, L-R: Frank Collins, Joe(?) Hudson, L.M. Alexander, and Sam Lewis, ca. 1943. Library of Congress photo, 90715591
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) was a union created by African-American employees of the Pullman Company in 1925 in the United States. The union started to formally establish divisions north of the border in 1942, first in Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg. In 1945, the BSCP signed a collective agreement with the Canadian Pacific Railway, effectively unionizing all the sleeping car porters across Canada.
The Vancouver division was established in 1951. A. Phillip Randolph, one of the founders of the Brotherhood, attended the “overflowing meeting.” The same meeting established a branch of the Canadian League for the Advancement of Coloured People (CLACP), later re-named the British Columbia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (BCAACP).
Four brothers, Frank, Fred, Richard (Dick), and Dave Collins, lived in Strathcona and worked as Canadian Pacific Railway car porters. The eldest, Frank Collins, was elected and served as President of both the union and the BCAACP.
By 1956, Collins changed careers and became a bus driver. He continued to be active the labour movement in the role of business agent and representative for the Amalgamated Transit Union, as well as retaining his role as President of the BCAACP well into the 1970s.