New series The Porter highlights the importance of showcasing Black Canadian history

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/the-porter-black-canadian-history-1.6357890

New series The Porter highlights the importance of showcasing Black Canadian history

Show highlights the creation of North America's first Black labour union

Jackson Weaver · CBC News · Posted: Feb 20, 2022 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: February 21

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In focusing those experiences, those little large moments drawn from the real lives of Black Canadians, The Porter's cast is hoping to undo a problem at the core of Canadian culture. Though Black Canadians helped shape this country, their history and place in it is rarely shown. That's contributed to a blind spot around much of Black Canadian history, and a general invisibility of Black Canadians as a unique cultural group in the first place.

At its core, the series follows the history of sleeping car porters. They were a largely Black working force who tended to railway passengers' luggage, as well as generally attending to those — largely white — passengers' needs.

Unveiling that history is what inspired creator and star Arnold Pinnock to craft the story in the first place. "Once someone bought a ticket, it was almost like, 'OK, I get to be on these palaces on wheels and I get to have my own slave,' Pinnock said. “And to showcase it from the porter's perspective, you know, from their viewpoint, I couldn't be any more prouder."

As the show details, those porters went on to create North America's first Black labour union, helping to both kick off the civil rights movement and create a Black middle class.

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Official trailer

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