Chicago historian Shermann “Dilla” Thomas famously says, “Everything dope about America comes from Chicago.”

And when you start digging into the history, you realize that might not be much of an exaggeration.

Especially when we talk about labor.

On Chicago’s South Side sits Pullman, a community whose history helped change the way America thinks about work, workers and dignity.

In 1894, workers at the Pullman Company went on strike after wages were cut while many of their living expenses remained high. What started on the South Side grew into a national railroad strike. Just days after the strike was broken, President Grover Cleveland signed legislation making Labor Day a federal holiday.

But Pullman’s story of labor and dignity was far from finished.

A generation later came the Pullman Porters.

Predominantly Black men, they became part of the face of luxury rail travel in America. They carried bags, prepared sleeping accommodations and helped provide the elevated hospitality that made the Pullman experience famous.

Think about that for a moment.

Black men were helping create luxury in a country that didn't always extend that same dignity to them.

In 1925, they began organizing the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters under A. Philip Randolph. Their fight for better wages, working conditions and respect would eventually become an important bridge between the labor movement and the Civil Rights Movement.

And somewhere within that history sits something near and dear to us:

the cup.

Tea was part of the larger culture of hospitality and refinement surrounding rail travel. It didn't create the movement, and we're not here to rewrite history. But serving a cup, creating an experience and making people feel cared for certainly belonged to the world these men helped make possible.

That hits differently for us.

9TEA3 is a Black owned tea company born right here in Chicago.

More than a century later, we get to think about that same idea of elevated hospitality from a different seat.

From serving the experience to owning the experience.

There is labor in every legacy. Hands that built something. People who carried something. Folks who opened doors they might never have had the opportunity to walk through themselves.

Today, we raise our cups to them.

To the workers.
To the Porters.
To Pullman.
To Chicago.

Because maybe Dilla is onto something.

Everything dope about America really might come from Chicago.

Happy Labor Day.

Peace, Prosperity & Pinkies Up.

It’s a Whole Leafstyle™.