Frank Boyd: An uncompromising labor leader (improved wages & working conditions for African-American

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_2969

By Art McWatt
28 March 2007

Editor's note: This article originally appeared in the Union Advocate newspaper as part of its centennial series in 1997.

St. Paul, Minnesota, has spawned many outstanding labor leaders but few could match the dedication of Frank Boyd, an African-American, who was born in Kansas City, Kansas, in 1881. Frank received his early education there and after his mother's death in 1894, he left home to make his way north.
For the next decade, he worked at odd jobs in both Kansas and Nebraska before deciding to come to Minnesota. He arrived in St. Paul in 1904 and found work as a porter in a Black barber shop. He worked there for three years before deciding to try working as a Pullman porter for the Northern Pacific Railroad.

His proclivity for organizing began when he joined the Waiters and Porters Association where he was its major recruiter. Its president, M.D. Pettis, described the association's purpose as one which, "cared for its sick and buried its dead."


This bust of Frank Boyd is in St. Paul's Boyd Park, the only park in the city named after a labor leader.

Starts organizing
Boyd's labor organizing really began in 1911 when he discovered that porters were distributing petitions around the country to raise the wages of Pullman porters. Boyd immediately began trying to persuade St. Paul porters to join the cause. It was an attempt to raise porter's wages from $25 to $50 after two years of service. The Pullman Company quashed the effort by raising wages by $2.50 a month. For the first time, Boyd was branded by the Pullman company as a ''trouble-maker."

During the war years, the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul porters came together to form the Railroad Mens' Industrial Association. Boyd helped to organize the local in St. Paul. The local elected George Shannon its president and Augustus Jones as its executive secretary. The movement was helped
during this period by the tacit approval of the federal government's labor policies.

After the war, Boyd was instrumental in the organization of a branch of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Union in St. Paul. The fraternal organization began its formation in New York City in 1919. A.W. Jordan was elected president of the St. Paul branch. Frank Boyd was chosen as its delegate to the Chicago convention that October.

FULL story at link.

Arthur McWatt taught for 33 years in the secondary schools of St. Paul. He received his M.A. from the University of Minnesota in 1969. He has been writing about African-American history for more than 10 years.

[pscot]

1. Maybe the only park in the country

named after a labor leader. :thumbsup: