Union Station

Drawing of Union Depot in Tulsa. The funding of the Interstate Highway System in 1956 led to Route 66 being decommissioned and the closure of Union Depot in Tulsa.  After the Civil War [Reconstruction from 1865 to 1877], African Americans were hired to work as porters in the Pullman sleeping (“Pullman”) cars on passenger railroads. They were called Pullman Porters. However, these men faced unfair treatment and discrimination by both employers and travelers. When they went on strike in 1925, Filipinos were hired to replace them as temporary laborers. However the Filipinos men quickly turned against their employers and joined their African American brothers, helping them unionize.