The National Restaurant Association’s Donations to Members of the 118th United States Congress

The National Restaurant Association was founded in 1919, approximately 50 years after Emancipation, with the express intent of maintaining the free labor model for newly emancipated Black workers that restaurant owners had developed after slavery.

Restaurant owners, such as the Pullman Train Company, similarly hired thousands of Black men after Emancipation and initially forced them to work only for tips. When the Pullman car porters started organizing in Chicago for an actual wage in the early 1900s — an effort that ultimately led to them winning an actual wage, rather than living on tips — restaurant owners formed the National Restaurant Association to stave off similar efforts by the Black women they hired in restaurants and maintain their access to free labor.