“He didn’t believe in the word ‘can’t.’”
We want to take a moment to salute an Angeleno who recently passed away. At 106, Lee Wesley Gibson was believed to be the oldest living Pullman porter – that select crew of uniformed attendants to high-end travelers in the luxury sleeping railroad cars.
Reporter Ann Simmons wrote a profile about Gibson in 2010. He started as a coach attendant with Union Pacific Railroad in 1936 at the height of the Great Depression.
Millions were out of work. And like so many Americans, Gibson moved around from Texas to California on the hunt for opportunity. Within a year, he landed a job with the railroad in his new hometown, L.A.
That began a 38-year journey in which he traveled all over the country, ultimately being promoted to Pullman porter. That was the gig many wanted, though it involved long hours and occasional indignities. That was the kind of job that improved the fortunes of many struggling African Americans back then.
An interesting detail: Porters were required to respond to the name “George” after George Pullman, who founded the Pullman Palace Car Co. in 1867. The company was most famous for developing the sleeping car, adorned with plush upholstery, marble-topped wash basins and lavishly decorated interiors. In the beginning, the company hired only African American attendants.
"I was very happy. It helped me feed my family … take care of them."
– Lee Wesley Gibson
Like thousands of other African Americans of his era, Lee Wesley Gibson had found a job that provided steady work and helped elevate his family's socioeconomic status.
"For African Americans, it was a middle-class job," Lyn Hughes, founder of the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum in Chicago, told The Times in 2010. The Randolph museum celebrates the contribution of African Americans to the nation's labor history. "It represented a sort of freedom, flexibility and education all in one bundle."
Gibson was able to buy a brand new home in 1945 in South Los Angeles, where he lived until his death.
His eldest daughter, Gwendolyn, who herself is 84, described her father’s fortitude: “He was a man whose outlook on life was extremely positive. He didn’t believe in the word ‘can’t.’”
You can read the obituary Ann Simmons wrote about Mr. Gibson here.
Photos by Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times