Asa Philip Randolph was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement, the American labor movement, and socialist political parties.
Background
Randolph was born April 15, 1889, in Crescent City, Florida. He was the second son of the Rev. James William Randolph, a tailor and minister in an African Methodist Episcopal Church, and Elizabeth Robinson Randolph, a skilled seamstress. In 1891, the family moved to Jacksonville, Florida, which had a thriving, well-established African-American community.
From his father, Randolph learned that color was less important than a person's character and conduct. From his mother, he learned the importance of education and of defending oneself physically against those who would seek to hurt one or one's family, if necessary. Randolph remembered vividly the night his mother sat in the front room of their house with a loaded shotgun across her lap, while his father tucked a pistol under his coat and went off to prevent a mob from lynching a man at the local county jail.
Education
Asa and was a superior student. He attended the Cookman Institute in East Jacksonville, the only academic high school in Florida for African Americans. Asa excelled in literature, drama, and public speaking; he also starred on the school's baseball team, sang solos with the school choir, and was valedictorian of the 1907 graduating class.
Career
In 1917 he and Chandler Owen founded the Messenger, a radical publication now regarded by scholars as among the most brilliantly edited ventures in African American journalism. Out of his belief that the African American can never be politically free until he was economically secure, Randolph became the foremost advocate of the full integration of black workers into the American trade union movement.
In 1925 he undertook the leadership of the campaign to organize the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), which would become the first African American union in the country. The uphill battle for certification, marked by fierce resistance from the Pullman Company (who was then the largest employers of blacks in the country), was finally won in 1937 and made possible the first contract ever signed by a white employer with an African American labor leader.
Later, Randolph served as president emeritus of the BSCP and a vice-president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.
In the 1940 Randolph developed the strategy of mass protest to win two significant Executive orders.
In 1941, with the advent of World War II, he conceived the idea of a massive march on Washington to protest the exclusion of African American workers from jobs in the defense industries. He agreed to call off the march only after President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, which banned discrimination in defense plants and established the nation's first Fair Employment Practice Committee. In 1948 Randolph warned President Harry Truman that if segregation in the armed forces was not abolished, masses of African Americans would refuse induction. Soon Executive Order 9981 was issued to comply with his demands.
In 1957 Randolph organized the Prayer Pilgrimage to Washington to support civil rights efforts in the South, and in 1957 and 1958 he organized a Youth March for Integrated Schools.
In August 1963, Randolph organized the March on Washington, fighting for jobs and freedom. This was the site of Martin Luther King Jr. 's famed "I Have a Dream, " speech, and a quarter million people came in support to the nation's capital.
Randolph was called "the chief" by King. And in 1966, at the White House conference "To Fulfill These Rights, " he proposed a 10-year program called a "Freedom Budget" which would eliminate poverty for all Americans regardless of race.
Randolph died on May 16, 1979.
Achievements
Asa Philip Randolph was a trade unionist and civil-rights leader who was a dedicated and persistent leader in the struggle for justice and parity for the black American community. The story of Randolph's career reads like a history of the struggles for unionization and civil rights in this century. He lent his voice to each struggle and enhanced the development of democracy and equality in America. Throughout his years as a labor and civil rights leader, Randolph rocked the foundations of racial segregation, pressuring presidents and corporations alike to recognize the need to remedy the injustices heaped on African Americans. Embracing a nonviolent, forward looking activism, Randolph will be remembered as both a "radical subversive" and "Saint Philip. "
In 1942, received the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Spingarn Medal.
On September 14, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson presented Randolph with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
In 1967 awarded the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award. It was named after a 1963 encyclical letter by Pope John XXIII that calls upon all people of good will to secure peace among all nations. Pacem in terris is Latin for 'Peace on Earth'.
Named Humanist of the Year in 1970 by the American Humanist Association.
Named to the Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame in January, 2014.
In 1967 awarded the Eugene V. Debs Award.
Amtrak named one of their best sleeping cars, Superliner II Deluxe Sleeper 32503, the "A. Philip Randolph" in his honor.
A. Philip Randolph Academies of Technology, in Jacksonville, FL, is named in his honor.
A. Phillip Randolph Boulevard in Jacksonville, Florida, formerly named Florida Avenue, was renamed in A. Phillip Randolph's honor. It is located on Jacksonville's east side, near EverBank Field.
A. Philip Randolph Campus High School (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 Career Academy in Philadelphia, Pa was named in his honor.
The A. Philip Randolph Career and Technician Center in Detroit, MI is named in his honor.
The A. Philip Randolph Institute is named in his honor.
A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum is in Chicago's Pullman Historic District.
Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, Florida houses a permanent exhibit on the life and accomplishments of A. Philip Randolph.
Randolph Street, in Crescent City, Florida, was dedicated to him.
'A. Philip Randolph Library', at Borough of Manhattan Community College,
Arts, entertainment, and media
In 1994 documentary A. Philip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom, PBS.
In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed A. Philip Randolph on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.
The story of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was made into the 2002 Robert Townsend film 10, 000 Black Men Named George starring Andre Braugher as A. Philip Randolph. The title refers to the demeaning custom of the time when Pullman porters, all of whom were black, were just addressed as "George".
A statue of A. Philip Randolph was erected in his honor in the concourse of Union Station in Washington, D. C. .
In 1986 a nine-foot bronze statue of Randolph by Tina Allen was erected in Boston's Back Bay commuter train station.
On February 3, 1989, the United States Postal Service issued a 25 cent postage stamp in Randolph's honor.
James L. Farmer, Jr. , co-founder of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), cited Randolph as one of his primary influences as a Civil Rights leader.
Randolph avoided speaking publicly about his religious beliefs to avoid alienating his diverse constituencies. Though he is sometimes identified as an atheist, particularly by his detractors, Randolph identified with the African Methodist Episcopal Church he was raised in. He pioneered the use of prayer protests, which became a key tactic of the civil rights movement.
Politics
At the age of 21 Randolph joined the Socialist party of Eugene V. Debs. In New York, Randolph became familiar with socialism and the ideologies espoused by the Industrial Workers of the World. He argued that people could only be free if not subject to economic deprivation. Randolph developed what would become his distinctive form of civil rights activism, which emphasized the importance of collective action as a way for black people to gain legal and economic equality. To this end, he opened an employment office in Harlem to provide job training for southern migrants and encourage them to join trade unions.
In the early Civil Rights Movement and the Labor Movement, Randolph was a voice that would not be silenced. He continued to agitate with the support of fellow labor rights activists against unfair labor practices in relation to people of color eventually.
Views
Quotations:
Randolph always said that his inspiration came from his father. "We never felt that we were inferior to any white boys. .. " Randolph said. "We were told constantly and continuously that ('you are as able, ' 'you are as competent, ' and 'you have as much intellectuality as any individual. ')"
Membership
Randolph was made a vice president and member of the executive council of the combined organization. He was the first president (1960–66) of the Negro American Labor Council, formed by Randolph and others to fight discrimination within the AFL-CIO.
Interests
In 1914 he helped organize the Shakespearean Society in Harlem and played the roles of Hamlet, Othello, and Romeo, among others.
Connections
In 1913 Randolph courted and married Mrs. Lucille Campbell Green, a widow, Howard University graduate, and entrepreneur who shared his socialist politics. She earned enough money to support them both. The couple had no children.
Father:
the Rev. James William Randolph
He was a tailor and minister in an African Methodist Episcopal Church.
