Black History Month starts today! So, to honor those that came before me and, paved the way for someone like me to do what I do and more…I’d like to present to you…here on day one: from (February 1, 2010 to February 28, 2010)
A. Phillip Randolph Labor leader and civil rights activist (1889-1979) Asa Philip Randolph was born on Aril 15,1889, in Crescent City, Florida, U.S. He was a trade unionist and civil-rights leader who was a dedicated and persistent leader in the struggle for justice and parity for the African American community. A. Philip Randolph was the son of a Methodist minister. Randolph moved to the Harlem district of New York City in 1911. He attended City College at right, and with Chandler Owen, founded an employment agency in 1912. Through it he hoped to organize black workers. In 1917, following the entry of the United States in World War I, the two men founded a magazine named “The Messenger.” After 1929 it was renamed, “The Black Worker.” The magazine called for more positions in the war industry and the armed forces for blacks. After the war, Randolph lectured at New York’s Rand School of Social Science and ran unsuccessfully for offices on the Socialist Party ticket. In 1925, as founding president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Randolph began organizing that group of African American Workers and, at a time when half the affiliates of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) barred blacks from membership, took his union into the AFL. Despite opposition, he built the first successful black trade union. The brotherhood won in first major contract with the Pullman Company in 1937. The following year. Randolph removed his union from the AFL in protest against its failure to fight discrimination in its ranks and took the brotherhood into the newly formed Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). He then returned to the question of black employment in the federal government and in industries with federal contracts. He warned President Franklin D. Roosevelt that he would lead thousands of blacks in a protest march on Washington, D.C. Roosevelt, on June 25, 1941, issued Executive Order 8802, barring discrimination in defense industries and federal bureaus and creating the Fair Employment Practices Committee. After World War II, Randolph founded the League for Nonviolent Civil Disobedience Against Military Segregation, resulting in the issue by President Harry S. Truman on July 26, 1948, of Executive Order 9981, banning segregation in the armed forces. When the AFL merged with the CIO in 1955, Randolph was made a vice president and member of the executive council of the combined organization. He was first president (1960-66) of the Negro American Labor Council, formed by Randolph and others to fight discrimination within the AFL-CIO. In an echo of his activities of 1941, Randolph was a director of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which brought more than 200,000 people to the capital on Aug. 28, 1963, to demonstrate support for civil-rights policies for African Americans. Two years later, he formed the A. Philip Randolph Institute for community leaders to study the causes of poverty. Suffering from a chronic illness, he resigned his presidency of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1968, and retired from public life. Randolph would enjoy a quiet retirement. He would finally pass away on May 16, 1979, in New York City, New York.
1 comment:
I think it is important to recognize the achievements of key African-American people, both living and deceased. Society has come a long way over the last several decades, and blacks have accomplished more than what most people ever expected. Fifty or so years ago, who would have imagined that there would be a black President of the United States? Clearly, African-Americans have been successful, and are clearly capable of great things.
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