Marching Together uses gender as a category of analysis along
with race and class to reinterpret the history of the Brotherhood of Sleeping
Car Porters from its inception in 1925 until the mid-1950s. Chateauvert
skillfully accomplishes four goals. First, she provides a detailed account of
the individual and organizational contributions of porters' wives to
building the Brotherhood in local communities, belying the union's
legendary account of courageous men of color battling a racist labor movement
and exploitative corporations on their own. Second, she provides an analysis of
the gender norms that governed the Brotherhood's organization and policies.
Third, Chateauvert provides a critique of the union's treatment of women
porters. Fourth, she provides a portrait of the civil rights activism of the
Brotherhood and its Ladies' Auxiliary between 1941 and 1956. Based on a
wealth of archival and published sources, Marching Together provides a
multifaceted and sophisticated analysis of the way that gender norms and
customary practices operated among Northern working-class African
Americans.