Posted: April 30th, 2023

A. Philip Randolph

As Phillip Randolph was not only an enormously Influential mover and shaker In the Civil Rights Movement In America from the sass’s throughout the sass’s. His influence went way beyond this period and affected millions within in his lifetime. He was born to Reverend James Williams Randolph who instilled in him the reality that a person’s deeds and actions, instead of their race, were what made a man who he was. His mother was a seamstress who taught him that education and self- defense, If necessary were the most important aspects a growing upstanding young an should focus on.
In 1907, he graduated from the Conman Institute in East Jacksonville as Valedictorian of his class. W. E. B. Dubbing’s persuasive book The Souls of Black Folk became instrumental in directing his life’s course. It inspired Randolph to move to New York in 1911, making racial equality amongst all men his most important task to tackle in his lifetime. And he did a mighty fine Job at that. He was married in 1914 to a widow by the name of Mrs.. Lucille Green, a Howard university Graduate and entrepreneur, who shared his political views and earned enough money on her own to support them both.
That left much time for him to fight the good fight. They married and joined the Socialist Party where Randolph began amassing large crowds at Harem’s Soapbox Corner, speaking about Socialism and the importance of environmental conscientiousness surrounding all races during those times. In 1917, Randolph met a man by the name of Chandler Owen. Other than the meeting of his wife, this was probably the most important cosmic collision of forces amongst two beings during this time period of union university in 1913. He then moved to NYC in 1915.

That’s where this striking attach-up began, between Randolph and Chandler. They were both Socialists and in August 1917, they established the journal the “Messenger together. It was a mixture of trade union news, political commentary, biographies of the leading radicals of the time and literary criticisms. The messenger closed In 1928, At that time Owen moved to Chicago and even though he was still a member of the socialist party he became much more conservative with age. But he continued his support of Randolph in his efforts to organize black workers.
In 1929, Randolph became president of the Brotherhood of he Sleeping Car Porters (BPCS), which he victoriously built into the first successful black-trade union. The friendship between Owen and Randolph was a profound and ground-breaking one that continued until the end of their lives. In 1925, a group of Pullman Porters approached Randolph and asked him to lead their new organization called the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BPCS). His primary qualification, as well as his reputation for incorruptibility and the fact that he wasn’t an employee who meant the company could not fire him or scare him off.
He led them for the next ten years, organizing them to the point, which resulted in the certification of the (BPCS) as the exclusive bargaining agent of the Porters in 1935. Randolph called this exclusive bargaining agent deal “the first victory of Negro workers over a great Insularly corporation”. He Decade ten most widely Known spokesperson for black working class interests in the country. Six years later, President Franklin Roosevelt refused to issue an executive order banning discrimination against black workers in the defense industry.
So Randolph allied for “10,000 loyal Negro American citizens” to march on Washington D. C. In protest of this. Support grew so quickly that soon he was began calling for 100,000 marchers to converge on the capital. Pressed by Randolph actions, President Roosevelt issued an executive order on June 25, 1941 – six days before the march was to occur declaring “there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color or national origin. ” Roosevelt also set up the Fair Employment Practices Commission to oversee the order.
Six years later there was the passage of the Selective Service Act of 1947, Randolph demanded that the government integrate the armed forces Randolph founded The League of Non-violent Civil Obedience Military Segregation and urged young men of all races to “refuse to cooperate with a Jim Crow conscription service. ” Threatened with widespread civil unrest, disobedience, and needing the black vote in his 1948 re-election campaign. Because of this President Harry Truman on July 26, 1948 ordered an end to military discrimination “as quickly as possible”.

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