A. Philip Randolph
A. Philip Randolph was a prominent African American civil rights leader and labor organizer. He founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first predominantly African American labor union. Randolph was a key figure in the civil rights movement and played a significant role in advocating for fair labor practices and racial equality in the United States.
3 Key excerpts on "A. Philip Randolph"
- Ai-min Zhang(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...In that year, he set up the first independent African American labor union in American history, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. He equated African American labor unionization with their civil rights struggles. He thought, "The principle of social equality is the only sure guarantee of social progress." In 1936, when discussing the issue of admitting African American workers to labor unions, he pointed out sharply that white workers and African American workers of the South could not be organized separately like five fingers of a hand. They must unite like a fist. Otherwise, they would misunderstand and fight with each other, and the American ruling class would destroy these organizations one by one. Many of his ideas in this period were later used in the struggles for African American civil rights. 42 In January 1941, Randolph pointed out in an article written for the Negro press that, "Only power can effect the enforcement and adoption of a given policy," and "power is the active principle of only the organized masses, the masses united for a definite purpose." He suggested marching on Washington D.C. with the slogan: "We loyal Negro-American citizens demand the right to work and fight for our country." 43 Common African Americans responded with enthusiasm to Randolph's call. All kinds of institutions, organizations and groups, including American communist groups, white churches and liberal organizations, especially those labor unions belonging to the Congress for Industrial Organizations published declarations of support. 44 The March on Washington Movement established command posts in Harlem and Brooklyn in New York, and in Washington D.C., Pittsburgh, Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis and San Francisco. The movement rapidly developed trunk railways and hubs. It soon combined with local chapters of the NAACP and the National Urban League. The organ of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Black Worker became the mouthpiece of the March on Washington...
- Jerald Podair, Darren Dochuk, Jerald Podair, Darren Dochuk(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Despite Kennedy’s reluctance, on August 28, 1963, 250,000 people came to the to the nation’s capital, making the March on Washington one of the most memorable events in modern American history. The most outstanding moment of the march was when Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. 8 In 1964 Randolph created the A. Philip Randolph Institute to strengthen the ties between labor and civil rights organizations. He contended that the civil rights movement needed the help of labor to help advance economic justice for African Americans. In 1965 the Institute created the A. Philip Randolph Educational Fund to establish a forum where people could discuss strategies for social justice. The Fund was a think tank for the civil rights movement. Due to ill health, Randolph retired from his position as president of the BSCP and vice-president of the AFL-CIO executive council in 1968. He died on May 16, 1979 at the age of 89. 9 Northern Civil Rights Another important contribution to civil rights scholarship over the last two decades has challenged the popular view of civil rights campaigns outside the South. Scholars writing on the northern civil rights movement note that the movement, as in the South, fought for integrated schools and access to public accommodations. However, a major issue for the northern movement was stopping police brutality against black citizens. As early as the 1920s black people organized to challenge police brutality, which many viewed as a form of racial terror sanctioned by the state. The Brooklyn branch of the National Equal Rights League, an early civil rights organization headed by the Reverend Thomas Harten of Holy Trinity Baptist Church, led demonstrations against police assaults of blacks...
eBook - ePub- Gregory Claeys(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- CQ Press(Publisher)
...Still, full legal equality, both in the political world and in civil society generally, was not yet possible. African Americans could join only a handful of unions (such as the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters), were kept from voting throughout the South, and were discriminated against in schools, jobs, housing, and services such as restaurants, theaters, and lodging. Although African Americans could vote in the North, they still had not achieved equal civil rights in almost all other areas, for both legal and de facto reasons. Despite lack of legal protections in Southern courts and facing acts of terrorism by White racists in the South, African Americans began to form organizations against lynching and for civil rights beginning in the years following Plessy v. Ferguson. The best known are the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP,1909); the Urban League (1910); Pan-African Congresses, (organized by W. E. B. Du Bois, beginning in 1919); and religious organizations. The only African American union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, was founded by A. Philip Randolph in 1925. In the wake of World War II, President Truman in 1948 took the courageous step of opposing the Dixiecrats, including Southern congressmen and U.S. senators, and calling for the integration of the armed forces. The Dixiecrats walked out of the 1948 Democratic nominating convention, but Truman won the Democratic nomination and an unexpected victory over Republican candidate Thomas Dewey with the help of African American voters in the North. With the momentum building for civil rights for African Americans, the growth of a worldwide human rights agenda through the newly formed United Nations, and the 1948 passing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the NAACP began careful preparation of a legal case to challenge the 55-year-old doctrine of “separate but equal” first legitimized by the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)...
