Rosina Tucker

Rosina Corrothers-Tucker (4 November 1881 - 3 March 1987) was an American labor organizer, civil rights activist, and educator. She is best known for helping to organize the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first African-American trade union. At the age of one hundred, Tucker narrated a documentary about the union, Miles of Smiles, Years of Struggle.

Early life

Rosina Budd Harvey was born in Northwest Washington, D.C., on November 4, 1881. She was one of nine children of Lee Roy and Henrietta Harvey, both former slaves from Virginia. Her father, who worked as a shoemaker, taught himself to read and write and fostered a love of books in his children. In 1897, Rosina Harvey was visiting an aunt in Yonkers, New York, when she met the poet James D. Corrothers, who was a guest minister there. She married "Poet" Corrothers on December 2, 1899. The couple had a son, Henry Harvey Corrothers, and raised Corrothers' other son from a previous marriage. Following the death of her husband in 1917, she moved back to Washington, D.C., where she worked for the federal government as a file clerk. She married her second husband Berthea "B.J." Tucker, a Pullman porter, on November 27, 1918.

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

The porters' union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, launched in 1925 with A. Philip Randolph as president. B.J. Tucker joined immediately, and he and Rosina began organizing in Washington. The porters worked long hours, and had little time for union activities. Many also feared that they would lose their jobs if their employers learned of their union involvement. For this reason, the porters' wives did much of the organizing, often holding meetings in secret. Rosina Tucker attended several secret meetings with A. Philip Randolph and other union leaders. On behalf of the union she visited some 300 porters at their homes in the Washington area, distributing literature, recruiting members, and collecting dues. She also organized the local Ladies' Auxiliary, which raised funds for the union by hosting dances, dinners, and the like. When the Pullman Company learned of Rosina Tucker's union activities, they fired her husband in retaliation. After Tucker confronted her husband's supervisor at his office, her husband was rehired. Tucker described the scene later:

In 1938 she attended the national union conference in Chicago, where she chaired the Constitution and Rules committee. That year she was elected secretary-treasurer of the union's auxiliary, a position she held for over 30 years. Working for the Women’s Economic Councils, Tucker always believed that job was never a hobby but “a tool of collective political struggle.” Thus, that briefcase seemed to be a remarkable and symbolic reward for her dedication and professionalism to the cause.

Tucker’s perception of women’s role in the Women’s Economic Councils When Tucker was nominated by Randolph to lead the first WEC in Washington, she said: “… God has something for all of us to do and ultimately places us where He wants us to be to carry out his [sic] purposes.” Her strong feeling of belonging to the cause allowed Tucker to forge her sensitive reject against the white southerners’ ideas that a Black woman was “devoid of morality,” thus incompetent. If there were obvious differences between the White and the Black cultural and social ideologies, however the common view of a woman’s role in the masculine society was her subordinate position to a man. Arguably, Tucker and other women saw their status differently; by their active participation in supporting men’s civil rights movement, the auxiliary often helped BSCP locals with rent and additional funding that consisted the utter source of women’s pride. Moreover, Tucker, besides her charity work prior to her active involvement in the WEC activity, claimed that any work including the Auxiliary Ladies’ should be paid: “…since this is a labor organization, which all of us have fought together to establish for better working conditions, … certainly those who are actually doing the work should receive a living wage.” Although none of the activists was considered as feminist, the voice of the Women’s Economic Councils members was becoming louder as to attract men’s attention to their role, professionalism, and organizational experience. But the ultimate WEC’s contribution in the long run was an educational process that many activist women brought to new generations of the Black community empowering the youth with ideas of mass action for equality of civil rights.

Later years

Rosina Tucker continued her union and civil rights activities for many years. She helped organize laundry workers, teachers, and red caps in the Washington area.

She was 105 years old when she died on March 3, 1987. Expressing the utter sadness and admiration, one of the mourners said: “She had a caring intellect, a full heart and a ready smile.” Quoting Tucker’s own words from her unpublished autobiography, she would have said that day: “Thus, while I live, let not my life be in vain, and when I depart, may there be remembrances of me and my life as I have lived it.” And there were a pride and a strong feeling of Tucker’s devotion that determined almost 70 years of political and social struggles of African American citizens for their rights to be finally accepted and equal.

Publications

Honors and awards

Candace Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, 1983. Honored by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights The A. Philip Randolph Institute's annual Rosina Tucker Award is named for her. In 2025, the National A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum broke ground for a Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Ladies Auxiliary Women’s History Museum, which will honor her work.