Frank Boyd

Frank L. Boyd (November 17, 1881 – May 2, 1962) was an American labor organizer and local leader of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters from 1926 to 1951 in Minnesota. He was the first African American person in Minnesota to be an elector for the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor party and also one of the first two African American electors in the history of the Democratic Party. His father, Asa, had formerly been enslaved in Kentucky.

Boyd attended school in Kansas for seven years, and moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, with his wife, Hattie, in 1904. Boyd married Hattie Boyd (née Mengler) in Pottawattamie, Iowa, in 1901.

Beginning in March 1907, Boyd worked as a Pullman porter. This involved attending to customers on the Pullman cars, and the all-Black workforce were all required to respond to the name "George" in reference to George Pullman. Shifts often extended up to 24 hours, and porters were granted no overtime pay unless they worked at least 400 hours in a month. Porters also had to supply their own food and uniforms. When Boyd began working, he earned $25 a month minus those deductions.

Union organizer

Boyd first participated in a labor organizing effort in 1909, followed by another attempt in 1910. In 1912, he signed a wage-increase petition circulated among Pullman porters that called to double their monthly wages from $25 to $50, and to raise them to $60 after two years on the job. As a result of this petition, however, the Pullman Company only raised wages by $2.50. One of the first major organizing efforts came in 1918, when the Railway Men's International Benevolent Industrial Association was organized by porters from the Chicago, Milwaukee, and Saint Paul Railroad. This group aimed to represent workers from the entire railroad industry. Boyd was an active member of this group, and helped to organize the local chapter, which elected George Shannon as its president. However, the union ultimately proved unsuccessful, as were efforts to obtain AFL recognition.

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters In October 1919, Boyd served as a delegate for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Protective Union conference in Chicago, Illinois. This group, which had been formed in New York in 1919, laid the foundations for the later union. In 1921, lacking other representation, Boyd joined the Pullman company's union, the Pullman Porters Benefit Association, and was a local officer for five years, chairing the local committee and sitting on the Central Zone General Committee.

Boyd retired as secretary-treasurer of Local #3 after 26 years of service in 1951. His retirement gala was held on December 4, 1951, at the St. Paul Hotel, and A. Philip Randolph spoke at the event.

A bust of Boyd by the artist J. Paul Nesse stands in the park with a plaque that reads "A Fighter For / His Union / His People / His Class."