A. PHILIP RANDOLPH

'Asa Philip Randolph' (April 15 1889 – May 16 1979) was a prominent twentieth century African-American civil rights leader and founder of the first black labor union in the U.S.

Contents

Early Years

Union organizer

Civil rights leader

Honors and Awards

Bibliography

See also

References

External links

Early Years

Randolph was born in Crescent City, Florida. He never grew up being "racially internalized", meaning that he never saw himself any less than the white kids around him. His father was a minister of the A.M.E. Church who moved the family to Jacksonville, Florida in 1891. In 1911, Randolph moved to New York City's Harlem in hope of becoming an actor.
Randolph's parents objected to his dramatic aspirations, so while at the City College of New York, he switched his studies to politics and economics. While at City College, he met his future wife, Lucille Green. Green was a teacher who had quit that career and opened a lucrative beauty salon when her first husband died. After their marriage, Randolph's political activities would often cause Lucille the loss of some customers.
Also at City College, Randolph met Chandler Owen, a sociology and political science student at Columbia University. Together, they formed the radical Harlem magazine, ''The Messenger'', in 1917 which espoused socialist views. He ran, unsuccessfully, as the Socialist candidate for New York's Secretary of State in the 1921 election ^[1].

Union organizer

Randolph had some experience in labor organization, having organized a union of elevator operators in New York City in 1917. In 1925, Randolph organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. This was the first serious effort to form a labor union for the employees of the Pullman Company, which was a major employer of African-Americans. With amendments to the Railway Labor Act in 1934, porters were granted rights under federal law, and membership in the Brotherhood jumped to more than 7,000. After years of bitter struggle, the Pullman Company finally began to negotiate with the Brotherhood in 1935, and agreed to a contract with them in 1937, winning $2,000,000 in pay increases for employees, a shorter workweek, and overtime pay. ^[2]. The Brotherhood was associated with the American Federation of Labor.

Civil rights leader

Randolph emerged as one of the most visible spokespersons for African-American civil rights. In 1941, he, Bayard Rustin, and A. J. Muste proposed a March on Washington to protest racial discrimination in the armed forces. The March was cancelled after President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the Fair Employment Act. Some militants felt betrayed by the cancellation because Roosevelt's pronouncement only pertained to defense industries and not the armed forces themselves. In 1947, Randolph formed the Committee Against Jim Crow in Military Service, later renamed the League for Non-Violent Civil Disobedience. President Harry S. Truman abolished racial segregation in the armed forces through Executive Order 9981 on July 26 1948.
Surprisingly, Randolph was also notable in his support for restrictions on immigration.
In 1950, along with Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the NAACP, and Arnold Aronson, a leader of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council, Randolph founded the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights(LCCR). LCCR has since become the nation's premier civil rights coalition, and has coordinated the national legislative campaign on behalf of every major civil rights law since 1957.
Randolph also helped Rustin and Martin Luther King Jr. to organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. As the U.S. civil rights movement gained momentum in the early 1960s and came to the forefront of the nation's consciousness, his rich baritone voice was often heard on television news programs addressing the nation on behalf of African-Americans engaged in the struggle for voting rights and an end to discrimination in public accommodations.
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Honors and Awards

★ On September 14 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson presented Randolph with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

★ A statue of A. Philip Randolph was erected in his honor in the concourse of Union Station in Washington, D.C.

★ Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, Florida currently houses a permanent exhibit on the life and accomplishments of A. Philip Randolph.

★ New York City high school 540, located on the City College of New York campus, is named in honor of Randolph. The school serves students predominantly from Harlem and surrounding neighborhoods.

★ The A. Philip Randolph Institute is named in his honor.

★ James L. Farmer, Jr., co-founder of the Congress of Racial Equality or CORE, cited Randolph as one of his primary influences as a Civil Rights leader.

★ Randolph's efforts on behalf of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters were portrayed in the Robert Townsend film ''10,000 Black Men Named George''. The title refers to the demeaning custom of the time when Pullman porters, all of whom were black, were just addressed as "George".

★ A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum is in Chicago near the Pullman Historic District.

★ Randoph is a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc.

Bibliography

★ Jervis Anderson, ''A. Philip Randolph: A Biographical Portrait'' (1973; University of California Press, 1986). ISBN 978-0520055056

★ Paula Pfeffer, ''A. Philip Randolph, Pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement'' (1990; Louisiana State University Press, 1996). ISBN 978-0807120750

★ Andrew E. Kersten, ''A. Philip Randolph: A Life in the Vanguard'' (Rowan and Littlefield, 2006). ISBN 978-0742548985

★ Cynthia Taylor, ''A. Philip Randolph: The Religious Journey of An African American Labor Leader'' (NYU Press, 2006). ISBN 978-0814782873

See also

★ Society for the Prevention of Calling Sleeping Car Porters "George"

★ Leadership Conference on Civil Rights

★ Union Organizer

References

1. Current Biography pp671-72
2. Current Biography 1940 671-72

External links

★ Transcript, A. Philip Randolph Oral History Interview I, 10/29/69, by Thomas H. Baker, Internet Copy, LBJ Library. 26 pages. Accessed April 2, 2005.

★ A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum

★ A. Philp Randolph Institute The Senior Constituency Group of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)

★ Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
'Documentaries'

★ 10,000 Black Men Named George entry from the Internet Movie Database

★ A. Philip Randolph Exhibit at the George Meany Memorial Archives of the National Labor College.

★ A. Philip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom 86 minutes, Producer: WETA. Director: Dante James. Distributor: California Newsreel