Commanders of the dining room [electronic resource] : biographic sketches and portraits of successful head waiters / E. A. Maccannon ; foreword by Maurice Carlos Ruffin with a new introduction by Danya Pilgrim.

"Originally published in 1904, Commanders of the Dining Room features brief biographies of over 50 African American head waiters and front-of-house restaurant staff. Maccannon, himself an African American and a former headwaiter, also offers a quick portrait of the Head and Second Waiters' National Benefit Association. The HSWNBA quickly became a union (of sorts) for the industry and for African American hotel workers. Though the HSWNBA was formed in Chicago and held conventions there, many of the waiters profiled in this book hail from southern restaurants. Maccannon published Commanders to increase the visibility and stature of Black waiters; to assure employers that they could count on members of the HSWNBA to thoroughly know their business; to attest to their commitment to be dependable workers who would not create labor unrest; and to showcase model African American manhood. Commanders proclaimed to young waiters that they could achieve success if they educated themselves, worked hard, and joined an association like the HSWBA. In Commanders they could see headwaiters, at the pinnacle of the profession, who had once started out at the bottom and worked their way to the top, overcoming a variety of challenges along the way. Maurice Carlos Ruffin's foreword provides a personal meditation on what Commanders might mean for contemporary audiences while simultaneously grounding the "respectability politics" of these men in the long Civil Rights Movement. And Danya Pilgrim's new introduction contextualizes Maccannon and his book in the early twentieth century"-- Provided by publisher.