Employment and Labour runs as a key theme throughout the collections. It is important to note that the issue of employment links closely with other areas, such as business and industry, in addition to poverty and discrimination. Indeed, the reasons for such prevalent union activity often grew from tensions surrounding race and identity. One such labour organisation was the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP). At a time when the African American community was excluded from organised labour, the Pullman Company existed as the primary employer of blacks. However, this fair and non-discriminatory veneer was deceptive. Much of the work was unpaid, and porters grew to rely on tips from unappreciative customers as their main source of income. Dissatisfaction triggered talk of ‘organising’ and, as early as 1900, efforts were put forth by various collectives of Pullman porters to create a union, however any attempts were quashed by the company. In 1925, the BSCP was officially founded in New York, and became the first organisation led by African Americans to receive a charter in the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Periodicals of ‘The Messenger’, found in the Newberry collection, outline the obstacles encountered in the campaign to found the union.