With our daily diet of “fake” news from Donald Trump’s America, Canadians could be forgiven for feeling smug. And there is much to be thankful for. Even so, it is important to remind ourselves that progress has not been easy.

Quebec might not have had a system of whites-only signage, as in the southern United States during the Jim Crow era, or any immediate plans to build a wall to keep out our neighbours, but we do have a history of slavery and racism.

For much of the 20th century, black Montrealers never knew if they would be served going into a bar, restaurant, cinema, or store. Proprietors had the right to serve whoever they wished. Fred Christie, from Verdun, faced this when he was refused service at a bar at the Montreal Forum in 1936. There were also cases of black tourists being refused hotel accommodation during Expo 67. Black Montrealers also faced discrimination at work, as few of the city’s factories would hire them until the Second World War.

Until the 1950s, most black men in the city worked for the railway companies as sleeping car porters, red caps and some categories of dining car employees. Only black men were hired for these positions. Montreal’s historic English-speaking black community therefore took root in what is today Little Burgundy due to its proximity to Windsor and (the old) Bonaventure stations.

Sleeping car porters had a tough job. They worked long hours and got little sleep. The nature of the job required that they be away from their families for large blocks of time. Porters were expected to be courteous, even when confronted with everyday racism. They were therefore vulnerable to public complaints.

Black railway workers might have had the worst paid jobs on the railway, but they enjoyed high status within their community. Porters were often highly educated. They were also well-travelled. Mobility had its advantages, contributing to the rising political awareness of the problems facing black people across North America.

Sleeping car porters, and their wives, helped found virtually every major black community institution in Montreal before 1950. The Colored Women’s Club, for example, was formed in 1902 by 15 wives of sleeping car porters. The local branch of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), founded in 1919, was likewise formed by porters. Did you know that Louise Langdon, mother of U.S. black power leader Malcolm X, was once an active member? For its part, the Union United Church and the Negro Community Centre, established in 1907 and 1927 respectively, also had a strong connection to porters. Even the father of jazz legend Oscar Peterson was a railway porter.

At first, black porters got no help from established trade unions. Instead, white railway unions excluded blacks from membership. White supremacy was the rule. In response, black porters formed their own union, the Order of Sleeping Car Porters, a century ago this year, in 1917. This was the first large black union in North America.

Black trade unionists faced fierce opposition from the railways, which preferred their porters cheap and docile. While the union managed to establish itself on the Grand Trunk/Canadian National Railways, the anti-union Canadian Pacific Railway promptly fired the black organizers.

The Order applied to Canada’s Trades and Labour Congress for a charter. Its application, however, was referred to the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway Employees, my father’s union, which had jurisdiction. The Canadian Brotherhood was an all-Canadian union, something rare at the time. It also organized workers industrially, meaning that it sought to organize all classes of railway workers. Everyone that is, except black porters. To accept the porters, the Canadian Brotherhood had to first eliminate its whites-only clause. The first try failed in 1918, but a subsequent vote succeeded. Two of the union’s four black locals were in Little Burgundy.

Sleeping car porters on the CPR were finally organized into a union during the Second World War. A. Philip Randolph, a future civil rights icon, and president of the U.S.-based Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, an all-black union formed in 1925, travelled to Montreal in July 1939 to speak to a large public meeting at the UNIA hall. A successful union drive followed, winning a first contract in March 1945.

After years of struggle, black railway workers finally defeated race segregation on Canada’s passenger trains in the 1960s. It didn’t just happen. Nor was it given to them. Then, as now, unions can make a difference.

On the road ahead, it is important that we remember and draw strength from past struggles for racial and social equality. Only then, will we one day arrive at a place where we have truly earned the right to be smug.

Steven High is a history professor at Concordia University and the founder of the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling. He will be speaking about “La Petite-Bourgogne: Berceau de la communauté noir de Montréal” in the auditorium of the Grande Bibliothèque, Tuesday Nov. 21 at 7 p.m.