Malcolm X (1992 Movie) Scene: Malcolm Working on the Train & "Drop Me Off in Harlem"

"Get'cha goood haaaaam an' cheeeeese . . . sandwiches! Coffee! Candy! Cake! Ice Cream!" - Malcolm, working as a sandwich man on the New Haven Railroad's "Yankee Clipper"

During Malcolm’s time in Boston in the early 1940s, an elderly Pullman Porter recommended him a job on the railroad. Malcolm had always wanted to visit New York City and figured the way to do that was to work on the railroad.

Malcolm made his way to the hiring office of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad on Dover Street. He was initially assigned to load food supplies onto trains in the Dover Street Yard. Malcolm later became assigned to work on the "Colonial" train as a fourth cook, washing dishes and serving coffee and sandwiches to passengers on trains from South Station to Washington, DC. Malcolm also worked on the Seaboard Railroad, renting pillows and cleaning coaches. Eventually, Malcolm got the opportunity to replace a sandwich man on the “Yankee Clipper”, which ran from Boston to New York. He wrote in his autobiography that he was so good at selling sandwiches that his fellow Pullman Porters called him “Sandwich Red”.
Because of the job on the train, Malcolm was able to make it to Harlem!

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In Boston, many Pullman Porters lived in the South End and worked out of Back Bay Station.

If you would like to learn more about Pullman Porters and the New Haven Railroad, visit the lobby area and corridor of Back Bay Station. There are six signs about Pullman Porters and a statue of A. Philip Randolph, who formed the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters union.

The present-day Back Bay Station is the third station and opened in 1987. Remnants of the second Back Bay Station can be found all over the 1987 station. For instance, there is a stone plaque emblem of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad near the Columbus Avenue "Entrance Across the Street" exits. There are many historic things everywhere.

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