During the golden age of North American train travel, sleeping cars often came with porters who would carry your luggage and shine your shoes. Porters were smiling, courteous and unfailingly polite; for the better part of the last century, they were also Black, male, and sometimes referred to condescendingly as “George’s boys” — or, simply, “George.”

Article Link: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/02/01/the-madness-of-being-george-how-black-train-porters-demeaned-overworked-and-called-by-the-same-name-helped-transform-canada.html