Asa
Philip Randolph
was
born in Crescent City, Florida, on 15th April, 1889. The son of a
Methodist minister, he was educated
locally before moving to New York where he studied economics and philosophy
at the City College.
While in New York he worked as an elevator operator, a porter and
a waiter. In 1917 Randolph founded a magazine, The
Messenger
(later the Black
Worker),
which campaigned for black civil rights. During the First
World War he was arrested for breaking the Espionage
Act. It was claimed that Randolph and his co-editor, Chandler
Owen was guilty of treason after opposing African Americans joining
the army.
After the war Randolph lectured at the Rand
School of Social Science. A member of the Socialist
Party, Randolph made several unsuccessful attempts to be elected
to political office in New York. He was was
involved in organizing black workers in laundries, clothes factories
and cinemas and in 1929 became president of the Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP). Over the next few years he built it
into the first successful black trade union.
The BSCP were members of the American Federation
of Labor (AFL) but in protest against its failure to fight discrimination
in its ranks, Randolph took his union into the Congress
of Industrial Organizations (CIO).
After threatening to organize a March on Washington
in June, 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt
issued Executive Order 8802 on 25th June, 1941, barring discrimination
in defence industries and federal bureaus (the Fair
Employment Act).
After the Second World War Randolph led a campaign
in favour of racial equality in the military. This resulted in Harry
S. Truman issuing executive order 9981 on 26th July, 1948, banning
segregation in the armed forces.
When the AFL merged
with the CIO, Randolph became vice president
of the new organisation. He also became president of the Negro
American Labor Council (1960-66).
In 1963 Randolph began involved in what became known as the March
on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It was a great success and
estimates on the size of the crowd varied from between 250,000 to
400,000. Speakers along with Randolph included Martin
Luther King (SCLC), Floyd
McKissick (CORE), John
Lewis (SNCC), Roy
Wilkins (NAACP), Witney
Young (National Urban League) and Walter
Reuther (AFL-CIO). King was the final
speaker and made his famous I Have a Dream
speech.
In his final years Randolph worked closely with Bayard
Rustin in the AFL-CIO funded, Philip
Randolph Institute, that was established in 1966. Philip
Randolph died in New
York on 16th May, 1979.
(1)
Philip Randolph, The
Messenger (July, 1918)
At a recent
convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP), a member of the Administration's Department of Intelligence
was present. When Mr. Julian Carter of Harrisburg was complaining
of the racial prejudice which American white troops had carried into
France, the administration representative rose and warned the audience
that the Negroes were under suspicion of having been affected by German
propaganda.
In keeping with the ultra-patriotism of the oldline type of Negro
leaders the NAACP failed to grasp its opportunity. It might have informed
the Administration representatives that the discontent among Negroes
was not produced by propaganda, nor can it be removed by propaganda.
The causes are deep and dark - though obvious to all who care to use
their mental eyes. Peonage, disfranchisement, Jim-Crowism, segregation,
rank civil discrimination, injustice of legislatures, courts and administrators
- these are the propaganda of discontent among Negroes.
The only legitimate connection between this unrest and Germanism is
the extensive government advertisement that we are fighting "to
make the world safe for democracy", to carry democracy to Germany;
that we are conscripting the Negro into the military and industrial
establishments to achieve this end for white democracy four thousand
miles away, while the Negro at home, through bearing the burden in
every way, is denied economic, political, educational and civil democracy.
(2)
Philip Randolph, The
Messenger (July, 1919)
The IWW is the only labor organization in the United States which
draws no race or color line. There is another reason why Negroes should
join the IWW. The Negro must engage in direct action. He is forced
to do this by the Government. When the whites speak of direct action,
they are told to use their political power. But with the Negro it
is different. He has no political power. Therefore the only recourse
the Negro has is industrial action, and since he must combine with
those forces which draw no line against him, it is simply logical
for him to draw his lot with the Industrial Workers of the World.
(3)
George Schuyler,
wrote about his time working for The
Messenger in his autobiography, Black and Conservative.
Philip Randolph was one of the finest, most engaging men I had ever
met. Undemanding and easy to get along with, leisurely and undisturbed,
remaining affable under all circumstance, whether the rent was due
and he did not have it, or whether an expected donation failed to
materialize, or whether the long-suffering printer in Brooklyn was
demanding money. He had a keen sense of humor and laughed easily,
even in adversity.
(4)
Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen , co-editors of the The
Messenger, were both charged
with breaking the Espionage
Act in August, 1918. Randolph later wrote about his trial.
The
judge was astonished when he saw us and read what we had written in
the Messenger. Chandler and I were twenty-nine at the time, but we
looked much younger. The judge said, why, we were nothing but boys.
He couldn't believe we were old enough, or, being black, smart enough,
to write that red-hot stuff in the Messenger. There was no doubt,
he said, that the the white socialists were using us, that they had
written the stuff for us.
He turned to us:
"You really wrote this magazine? We assured him that we had.
"What do you know about socialism? he said. We told him we were
students of Marx and fervent believers in the socialization of social
property. "Don't you know," he said, "that you are
opposing your own government and that you are subject to imprisonment
for treason?" We told him we believed in the principle of human
justice and that our right to express our conscience was above the
law.
(5)
Philip Randolph met Marcus Garvey in 1916
while making a speech on behalf of the Socialist
Party. He later recalled his impression of Garvey as a political
leader.
I was on a soapbox speaking on socialism, when someone pulled my coat
and said, "There's a young man here from Jamaica. I said, "What
does he want to talk about?" He said, "He wants to talk
about a movement to develop a back-to-Africa sentiment in America."
Garvey got up on the platform, and you could hear him from 135th to
125th Street. He had a tremendous voice. When he finished speaking
he sat near the platform with a sheaf of paper on which he was constantly
writing, and he had stamps and envelopes, ready to send out his propaganda.
I could tell from watching him even then that he was one of the greatest
propagandists of his time.
(6)
Claude McKay wrote about Philip Randolph
in Harlem, Negro Metropolis (1936)
More
than any other Negro leader, he has a comprehensive understanding
of the vast conquests of modern industry and the grand movement of
labour to keep abreast of it. And he is aware that the Negro group
is in a special position and has a special force. His outlook remains
unblurred by passion and prejudice. He takes a long, balanced view
of men and affairs. He could not be tagged with radical, chauvinist,
nationalist, or reactionary labels, or with any other slanderous names
such as the Communists and the other labor henchmen attach to those
colored people who oppose their unscrupulous exploitation of Negro
organizations in the interest of Soviet Russia. He believes that the
mainspring of the Negro group lies within itself.
(7)
Ralph Bunche, on a speech by Philip Randolph
at a meeting of the Labor Non-Partisan League in April, 1940.
Randolph's speech cautioned the Negro
that it would be foolish for him to tie up his own interests with
the foreign policy of the Soviet Union or any other nation of the
world. Nor would the Negro be sensible in hoping that through tying
himself to any American organization, political or labor, he would
find a ready solution for the problems. He cautioned the Congress
against too close a relationship with any organization, mentioning
the major parties, the Communist Party, the Socialist Party (of which
he is a member) and the CIO. He expressed the view that the Negro
Congress should remain independent and non-partisan, and that it should
be built up by Negro effort alone. He ridiculed the assumption that
the Communist Party, aligned with the political course of the Soviet
Union, could pursue a constructive policy with regard to Negro interests
here.
(8)
Philip
Randolph, statement made on
the proposed March on Washington (15th January, 1941)
Negro America must bring its power
and pressure to bear upon the agencies and representatives of the
Federal Government to exact their rights in National Defense employment
and the armed forces of the country. I suggest that ten thousand Negroes
march on Washington, D. C. with the slogan: "We loyal Negro American
citizens demand the right to work and fight for our country."
No propaganda could be whipped up and spread to the effect that Negroes
seek to hamper defense. No charge could be made that Negroes are attempting
to mar national unity. They want to do none of these things. On the
contrary, we seek the right to play our part in advancing the cause
of national defense and national unity. But certainly there can be
no national unity where one tenth of the population are denied their
basic rights as American citizens.
(9)
On
18th June, 1941, a meeting took place at the White House about the
proposed March on Washington.
This included Philip
Randolph,
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Walter
White and Fiorello La Guardia.
Philip
Randolph: Mr. President, time is running on. You are quite busy, I
know. But what we want to talk with you about is the problem of jobs
for Negroes in defense industries. Our people are being turned away
at factory gates because they are colored. They can't live with this
thing. Now, what are you going to do about it?
Franklin D. Roosevelt:
Well, Phil, what do you want me to do?
Philip Randolph: Mr. President, we want you to do something that will
enable Negro workers to get work in these plants.
Franklin D. Roosevelt: Why, I surely want them to work, too. I'll
call up the heads of the various defense plants and have them see
to it that Negroes are given the same opportunity to work in defense
plants as any other citizen in the country.
Philip Randolph: We want you to do more than that. We want something
concrete, something tangible, definite, positive, and affirmative.
Franklin D. Roosevelt: What do you mean?
Philip Randolph: Mr. President, we want you to issue an executive
order making it mandatory that Negroes be permitted to work in these
plants.
Franklin D. Roosevelt: Well Phil, you know I can't do that. If I issue
an executive order for you, then there'll be no end to other groups
coming in here and asking me to issue executive orders for them, too.
In any event, I couldn't do anything unless you called off this march
of yours. Questions like this can't be settled with a sledge hammer.
Philip Randolph: I'm sorry, Mr. President, the march cannot be called
off.
Franklin D. Roosevelt: How many people do you plan to bring?
Philip Randolph: One hundred thousand, Mr. President.
Franklin D. Roosevelt: Walter, how many people will really march?
Walter White: One hundred thousand, Mr. President.
Fiorello La Guardia: Gentleman, it is clear that Mr. Randolph is not
going to call off the march, and I suggest we all begin to seek a
formula.
(10)
Philip
Randolph,
statement on the cancellation of the March on Washington (25th June,
1941)
The march has been called off because its main objective, namely the
issuance of an Executive Order banishing discrimination in national
defense, was secured. The Executive Order was issued upon the condition
that the march be called off.
(11)
George Schuyler,
Pittsburgh Courier (1st August, 1942)
Mr. Randolph knows how to appeal to the emotions of the people and
to get a great following together, but there his leadership ends because
he has nowhere to lead them and would not know if he had. He has the
messianic complex, considerable oratorical ability and some understanding
of the plight of the masses, but the leadership capacity and executive
ability required for the business at hand is simply not there. The
original March on Washington move is now admitted to have been a failure
else the current agitation would not be necessary.
(12)
Philip Randolph, speech at the March
on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
(28th August, 1963)
We are not an organization or a group of organizations. We are
not a mob. We are the advance guard of a massive moral revolution
for jobs and freedom. The revolution reverberates throughout the land,
touching every city, every town, every village where blacks are segregated,
oppressed and exploited. But this civil rights demonstration is not
confined to the Negro; nor is it confined to civil rights; for our
white allies knew that they cannot be free while we are not. And we
know that we have no future in which six million black and white people
are unemployed, and millions more live in poverty. Those who deplore
our militancy, who exhort patience in the name of a false peace, are
in fact supporting segregation and exploitation. They would have social
peace at the expense of social and racial justice. They are more concerned
with easing racial tensions than enforcing racial democracy.
(13)
Philip Randolph, interviewed by Jervis Anderson for his book, Philip
Randolph: A Biographical Portrait (1972)
I have
always been opposed to wars in principle - though in the case of World
War II, I am able to support those that are vital to the survival
of our democratic institutions. Vietnam does not seem to me to be
such a war. It represents, as far as I can see, no defence of our
vital national interests. The moral commitment of the American government
went beyond the reaches of liberal concern for our own problems, in
the sense that it committed an enormous and costly amount of the nation's
resources to Vietnam - in terms of both money and human life.
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