A. Philip Randolph represented the perfect blend between the civil rights and labor communities. Randolph fully understood the struggle for human and civil rights should involve all of the tools and resources that we had at our disposal. Indeed, Mr. Randolph was the conscience of organized labor in that he sought to get the trade union movement to set its own house in order. He urged and challenged organized labor to join in the struggle of African Americans for freedom and equality. A. Philip Randolph helped to draft the “strongest statement of labor’s position on civil rights ever to come before a convention of the AFL-CIO.” Randolph, the labor leader and civil rights leader was also called a dreamer of dreams.

1. Teaching American History Grant
Jackson Public Schools
Dr. Leslie Burl McLemore

2. A. Philip Randolph represented the perfect blend
between the civil rights and labor communities.
Randolph fully understood the struggle for human
and civil rights should involve all of the tools and
resources that we had at our disposal. Indeed, Mr.
Randolph was the conscience of organized labor in
that he sought to get the trade union movement to
set its own house in order. He urged and challenged
organized labor to join in the struggle of African
Americans for freedom and equality. A. Philip
Randolph helped to draft the “strongest statement of
labor’s position on civil rights ever to come before a
convention of the AFL-CIO.” Randolph, the labor
leader and civil rights leader was also called a dreamer
of dreams.

3.  How did A. Philip Randolph bridge the gap
between Civil Rights and Labor?
 What role did he play in organizing the March
on Washington?
 How did he fight to ban discrimination in the
armed forces?

4.  April 5, 1889 – May 16,
1979
 Leader in the American
labor movement
 Organized and led the
Brotherhood of
Sleeping Car Porters
 Was the head of the
March on Washington
in 1963

5. Chandler Owen Marcus Garvey Bayard Rustin Booker T. W.E.B. Dubois
Washington

6. A Chronology

7.  1907 – Randolph graduates from the
Cookman Institute
 1914 – While working for the Brotherhood of
Labor, Randolph meets Lucille Green, who is
six years older than him. They marry in
November
 1916 – Chandler Owen and Randolph join the
Socialist Party

8.  1889 - 1967
 African American writer,
editor and early member
of the Socialist Party of
America.
 Graduated from Virginia
Union University
 Wrote speeches for
candidates and
“We do not thank God for anything... our
presidents including: Deity is the toiling masses of the world
Thomas Dewey, Dwight and the things for which we thank are
D. Eisenhower, Lyndon their achievement.”
B. Johnson

9.  a political and literary magazine by
and for African-American people in
the early 20th century
 Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen
began publishing The Hotel
Messenger in August of 1917.
 Renamed simply The Messenger, the
featured more articles about black
culture and began to publish rising
black writers.
 The Messenger openly
critiqued Marcus Mosiah Garvey’s
theory of Black Nationalism.
 In 1918, Randolph and Owen were
arrested for sedition, and U.S.
Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer
labels the Messenger “by long odds
the most dangerous of all the Negro
publications” in the United States.

10.  August 1887 – June 10,
1940
 Jamaican political leader,
publisher, entrepreneur
and orator
 President of the Universal
Negro Improvement
Association and African
Communities League
 Founded the Black Star
Line
 Part of the Back-to Africa
Movement which
promoted the return of the
African to their ancestral
lands Diaspora

11.  (April 5, 1856 –
November 14, 1915
 an African-American
educator, author, orator,
and advisor to
Republican presidents
 attained national
prominence for his
Atlanta Address of 1895,
 Secretly funded
litigation for civil rights
cases, such as challenges
to southern
constitutions and laws
that disfranchised blacks

12.  February 23, 1868 – August
27, 1963
 Sociologist, historian, civil
rights activist, Pan-Africanist,
author and editor
 Graduated from Harvard as
the first African American to
earn a doctorate
 Professor of history,
sociology and economics at
Atlanta University
 Co-founder of the National
Association for the
Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP) in 1909

13.  1918 – Randolph and Owen are arrested for
sedition, and U.S. Attorney General A.
Mitchell Palmer labels the Messenger “by long
odds the most dangerous of all the Negro publications”
in the United States
 1925 – Randolph helps establish the
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP)

14.  Established in 1925 by A.
Philip Randolph
 The first labor organization
led by blacks to receive a
charter in the American
Federation of Labor (AFL)
 After protracted
negotiations, the union won
its first contract in 1937.
 The BSCP also remained a
source of inspiration and
activism in African American
communities, providing a
training ground for future
civil rights leaders like C.L.
Dellums and E.D. Nixon

15.  1928 – The Messenger ceases publication.
The BSCP grow to a membership of 1400
 1929 – The BSCP joins the American
Federation of Labor
 1932 – The BSCP membership falls to under
800
 1935 – Randolph becomes president of the
National Negro Congress

16.  Formed in 1935 at Howard
University as a broadly based
organization with the goal of fighting
for Black liberation
 NNC was the culmination of the
Communist Party's Depression-era
effort to unite black and white
workers and intellectuals in the fight
for racial justice
 In February 1936, the first national
meeting of the Congress was held
in Chicago. It was a confluence of
civic, civil rights, labor, and religious
groups from across the nation; over
800 delegates representing 551
organizations and over 3 million
constituents attended.
 A. Philip Randolph was elected
President and John P. Davis was
elected National Secretary.

17.  1937 – The BSCP wins its struggle with the
Pullman Company and becomes the
bargaining agent for porters
 1940 – Randolph resigns from the National
Negro Congress
 1941 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued
Executive Order 8802
 1941 – The Fair Employment Practice
Committee was created

18.  Also known as the Fair
Employment Act
 Signed by President
Franklin D. Roosevelt on
June 25, 1941
 Prohibit racial
discrimination in the
national defense industry
 It was the first federal
action, though not a law, “The democratic way of life within
to promote equal the nation can be defended
opportunity and prohibit successfully only with the help and
employment support of all groups“ – President
discrimination in the Franklin D. Roosevelt
United States

19.  (FEPC) implemented US
Executive Order 8802
 FEPC rules applied and
guaranteed equality of
employment rights
 generally successful in
enforcing non-
discrimination in the
North, it did not attempt
to challenge segregation
in the South

20.  1943 – Randolph establishes the National
Council for Permanent FEPC
 1946 – The wartime FEPC ceases to exist.
Randolph helps create the National
Education Committee for a New Party and
arranges for the publication of the group’s
“Provisional Declaration of Principles”
 1947 – Randolph creates the Committee
Against Jim Crow in Military Service and
Training to desegregate the military

21.  1948 – President Truman signs the Universal
Military Service and Training Act
 1948 – Randolph forms the League for Non-
Violent Civil Disobedience Against Military
Segregation
 1948 – President Harry S. Truman issues
Executive Order 9980 and 9981

22.  In 1947, A. Philip Randolph, along
with colleague Grant Reynolds,
renewed efforts to end
discrimination in the armed
services, forming the Committee
Against Jim Crow in Military Service
and Training
 It is hereby declared to be the policy
of the President that there shall be
equality of treatment and
opportunity for all persons in the
armed services without regard to
race, color, religion or national
origin. This policy shall be put into
effect as rapidly as possible, having
due regard to the time required to
effectuate any necessary changes
without impairing efficiency or
morale – executive order 9981

23.  9980  9981
 is an executive order  Executive Order 9981
issued on July 26, 1948 ordered the
by President Harry S. desegregation of the
Truman. federal work force
 Abolished racial
discrimination in the
armed forces and
eventually led to the
end of segregation in
the services

25.  1957 – Randolph helps to stage the Prayer
Pilgrimage for Freedom, largest civil rights
protest in Washington, D.C., to that date.
 1958 – Randolph organizes the Youth March
for Integrated Schools, to support the
desegregation of educational institutions
 1959 – Randolph assumes presidency of the
Negro American Labor Council to fight for
reform and civil rights in the American
Federation of Labor

26.  Founded in 1959, the NALC sought
to address the failure of the AFL-CIO
(American Federation of Labor and
Congress of Industrial Organizations)
to end racial discrimination in some
of its unions
 ‘‘The Negro American Labor Council
speaking for thousands of Negro
workers is fully behind you—strong
in our material and spiritual
condemnation of the violence visited
upon you, we pledge our unstinting
aid’’ – Randolph telegraphed to
Martin Luther King, Jr. in reaction to
the 1961 Freedom Rides
The campaign demanded that Sears Roebuck retail
stores hire African American women as sales
clerks. Their struggle was relentless, lasting six days
a week for nine long months

27.  Wednesday, August 28,
1963
 Was one of the largest
political rallies for
human rights in United
States history –
Washington Post
 Estimates of the number
of participants varied
from 200,000 (police) to
over 300,000 (leaders of
the march).

28. Randolph Receiving the Presidential
Medal of Freedom
in 1964 from President Lyndon B. Johnson

29.  an organization for
African American trade
unionists
 APRI was co-founded in
1965 by Bayard Rustin
 a bridge between labor
and black communities
 APRI was the spearhead
for an organization
called the "Black Alliance
 Today APRI has 150
chapters in 36 states

30.  March 17, 1912 – August 24, 1987
 An American leader in social
movements for civil rights, socialism,
pacifism and non-violence, and gay
rights
 helping to initiate a 1947 Freedom
Ride to challenge with civil
disobedience racial segregation on
interstate busing
 In 1942, Rustin assisted George
Houser and James L. Farmer, Jr., and
activist Bernice Fisher as they formed
the Congress of Racial Equality
(CORE). “Rustin was not a direct
founder but was "an uncle of CORE,"
Farmer and Houser said later Rustin at a news briefing on the
 In 1965, Rustin became the first Civil Rights March on
Director of the A. Philip Randolph Washington
Institute August 27, 1963

31.  Sometimes called the
"Randolph Freedom budget",
aimed to deal with the
economic problems facing
the Black community -
particularly workers and the
unemployed
 This called for the spending of
$185 billion over ten years by
the U.S. government to fight
against poverty, So spoke A.
Philip Randolph from the
"The labor movement traditionally has convention floor of the AFL-
been the only haven for the dispossessed, CIO.
the despised, the neglected, the  Proposed to Congress and
downtrodden and the poor." President Johnson
- A. Philip Randolph