Lee Williams

Lee Williams was a Canadian railway porter, as well as civil and labour rights activist.

Williams is best known for fighting for fair treatment of Black employees at the Canadian National Railway (now Via Rail).

Biography Born around 1907 in Waco, Texas, Williams immigrated to Canada as a child in 1910, settling in Hillside, Saskatchewan with his family. The vast majority of Black men in Winnipeg at the time were porters, establishing the beginnings of Winnipeg's Black community in the shadow of the CPR railway station in what is now North Point Douglas.

At the time opportunities for advancement was limited among Black workers, who were not eligible to be union members or get promoted in addition to receiving very low wages.

Seeking to advocate for racial equality, Williams became chair of the local chapter of the Order of Sleeping Car Porters' Union. In 1955, he challenged the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway Employees, the predominant porter union at the time, with a request to remove job discrimination from the union’s collective agreement, but was ultimately shut down.