Throughout the 1960s, even as the civil rights movement won important victories, segregation remained so common that organizers often found themselves having to work against the AFL-CIO’s policy of nondiscrimination. And for unionized Black workers, many found that official progressive AFL-CIO policy was slow to trickle down. As a result, surveys directed by the Jewish Labor Committee of post-Brown unions in the South reported that many Black workers declared little loyalty to their heavily discriminatory unions. But with the establishment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 1965, workplace discrimination became subject to federal oversight, allowing civil rights laws to be enforced. Workers finally had a system to file grievances against their employers and unions without fearing for their jobs. Rail workers’ complaints in particular had hardly changed over the decades: much like how the Pullman Company took advantage of its Black employees during the 1920s, as late as 1966 the Missouri Pacific Railroad still classified its Black brakemen as “train porters” and refused to pay equal wages for equal work. Now, Black employees could file official complaints, and the EEOC charged Missouri Pacific with illegal discrimination.

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