Vernel ‘Pop” Brown Sr. was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi on March 3, 1918, to parents James Brown and Lilly Matthew Brown (Born 1894).  He attended grade school in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.  After graduation, his parents moved the family from Hattiesburg to Biloxi Mississippi Beat One Township neighborhood located in Harrison County.    

     He graduated from M. Francis Nichols Colored High School in 1936.  It was at that high school where he met his girlfriend who later became his wife Annie Sheppard.   He and Annie married in 1938.  They purchased their first home at 424 Elmer Street, in Biloxi Mississippi in 1939. He worked as a laborer until he was drafted into the service in 1941.  After the Japanese Navy Air Service attacked the United States Naval Base in Honolulu Hawaii (Pearl Harbor).  He worked has one of 1,500 crewmen on the battleship U.S.S. Iowa (BB-61) during World War II.  https://youtu.be/KB4kdeDjz38

     Upon, leaving the service he and his family migrated to Chicago, Illinois and then he started working as a Pullman Porter and a shoe man ( changed brakes on the train)  for Burlington Northern Railroad (now BNSF).  He traveled from Chicago, IL to Panama, FL every day for the railroad.  In 1951, he and Annie bought land and built their second home in Gary, Indiana at 1929 McKinley Street.  He continued to travel back and forward from Gary to Chicago for work. 

     In 1959, Vernel and Annie separated and then divorced in 1982. They had 8 children but only 4 survived.  He married Faye McFarland in 1984 and they divorced in 1989. They did not have children.  He passed away in Chicago, IL on July 5, 2002, at the age of 84. 

Today we honor  Vernel Brown Sr  and his life story for his work  as a Pullman Porter and Shoeman (Mechanic that changed the train brakes ) for Burlington Northern Railroad (BNSF) and for his contributions to the “Great Migration” (1910's-1970's) as well as the  “Labor / Civil Rights Movements” .
 
About the Historic Pullman Porters: 

George M. Pullman hired thousands of Afro American men to serve white passengers traveling across the country on his luxury “Sleeping Cars”. Pullman Porters helped shape the black middle class.  Their work, which involved lots of  travel, enabled them to transport and spread news about fair treatment and opportunities for people of color in the northern states to cities along thier train routes by distibutung the publications like “The Chicago Defender” newspaper which encouraged black people to leave the south and migrate north which lead to the "Great Migration".


 
Asa Philip Randolph was a Civil Rights Leader and Unionist who started the … 1st Predominantly Black American Labor Union – Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) in 1937, our anestor was a member. The union fought for dignity, equal rights and equal pay for black people working on U.S Railroads. Mr. Randolph was also the major organizer of the 1963 “March on Washington” in which Dr Martin Luther King delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech. 
 
In 1995, Dr. Lyn Hughes founded The National A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum- named after the men who made history. The facility is located in the Historic Pullman District in Chicago Illinois. On February 19, 2015 President Barack Obama designated the Historic Pullman district a National Monument that is now a part of the National Park Service.
 

Fun Fact : 

How is Labor Day connected to the Pullman Strike?

The Federal Labor Day Holiday Is Created

Even as Pullman Company and railroad workers were striking, Congress passed legislation in June 1894 making the first Monday in September a federal legal holiday to recognize and celebrate labor.
 

Venel Brown Sr. is honored in the A Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum in Chicago.  Forever Grateful. 

When you vist Chicago in the future , stop by the Pullam District and vist the Pullman Porter Museum.  

Link: https://aprpullmanportermuseum.org/

We are decendants of a Pullman Porter.