How Far do We Walk?
How does a young man from Jacksonville, Florida create fair working conditions and rights for the entire U.S. black population? Two Presidents, FDR and Truman, understood his power and message of inclusion and supported him in new military and national employment anti-discrimination legislation. He was also the visionary director for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in the summer of 1963. Yes, that is the protest in which Martin Luther King Jr. spoke the words, "I have a dream."
Who was the man that launched the high-point of the Civil Rights Movement? His name is Asa Philip Randolph. Moreover he was an American who saw an opportunity to change how white and black people would live and create friendships together in the country.
Randolph was an intelligent child and grew up in a predominantly black area of Jacksonville, Florida. He was aware of lynchings and the possibility of being killed for the crime of being black in the South. Even after graduating as valedictorian from his High School, Asa found finding a suitable job hard.
He faced discrimination from all job opportunities except for manual jobs in the South. Asa moved to New York City in 1911, where he worked odd jobs and took social sciences courses at City College.
What is Civil?
Before long, Randolph was married and became active in the New York Socialist Pary of America. In 1917 Randolph and Chandler Owen founded a radical monthly magazine named The Messenger.
Their crazy ideas were being against lynching, opposing U.S. participation in World War I, and fighting for an integrated society, creating livable wages and safety unions. Furthermore, The Department of Justice called The Messenger "the ablest and the most dangerous of all the Negro publications." The magazine was filled with hope.
Go Pullman
Randolph, however, wanted to help create unions, not just write about liking them. After several failed attempts, he joined and was elected president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) in 1925. Most importantly, this was the first serious effort to form a labor institution for employees of the Pullman Company, a significant employer of African Americans.
Asa increased enrollment by porters to 51% in his first year. As a result, the Pullman Co. responded with acts of violence and firings. However, Randolph and his porters would not be intimidated. They had many disappointing times and struggled to stay solvent, but a minor miracle happened. In 1932 Franklin D. Rosevelt created amendments to the Railway Labor Act that gave porters rights under federal law. Membership jumped to over 7,000 Pullman porters, and the tides had turned in their favor. Employees of Pullman gained $2,000,000 in pay increases, shorter workweeks, and overtime pay. Randolph was active and maintained the Brotherhood's affiliation with the American Federation of Labor through the 1955 AFL-CIO merger.
As a result, Asa was becoming a national figure of the civil rights movement. He also believed in the power of peaceful direct action and was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy and victories against British occupation in India.
We're Getting Closer
Randolph's first proposed March on Washington came in 1941; however, the March was canceled after FDR issued Executive Order 8802, or the Fair Employment Act. The order, unfortunately, applied to banning discrimination within war industries and not the armed forces. Nonetheless, the Fair Employment Act is still considered a significant early civil rights victory.
The country was now ready to take on more integration. Randolph spoke to over 18,000 people in Madison Square Garden in 1942. His subjects were on ending discrimination in the military, war industries, government agencies, and in labor unions. Randolph was rewarded by the U.S. government backing African-American workers' striking to gain positions formerly limited to white employees during the Philidelphia Transit Strike.
Supported by his successes, Randolph and other activists continued to press for the rights of African Americans. In 1947, Randolph renewed efforts to end discrimination in the armed services, forming the Committee Against Jim Crow in Military Service, later renamed the League for Non-Violent Civil disobedience. See my blog on the Tuskegee Airmen.
The Power of being Peaceful
Asa had such tremendous power in the black community that he urged young black men to refuse to register. Truman was so vulnerable to defeat in 1948. He needed the support of the growing black population in northern states that he eventually capitulated and signed Executive Order 9981 to abolish racial segregation in the armed forces in 1948. So, another victory for American's civil rights.
In 1950, Randolph founded the Leadership Conference onCivil Rights (LCCR) along with Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the NAACP, and Arnold Aronson, leader of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council. The LCCR has been a prominent civil rights coalition. It has coordinated a national legislative campaign on behalf of every primary civil rights law since 1957.
When resistance came from Brown v. Board of Education and civil unrest was happening in the South, Randolph organized the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom with Martin Luther King Jr. During 1958 and 59, Randolph organized youth marches for integrated schools in Washington, D.C. He simultaneously arranged to have King taught how to organize peaceful demonstrations in Alabama as well as form alliances with progressive whites. Asa knew that Americans were stronger together than they were separate.
Together We Stand
Randolph had seen how violence, especially black violence, was covered on National Television. He did not want to make that mistake with King. Evening after evening, television brought into the living-rooms of America the violence, brutality, stupidity, and spectacle of Eugene "Bull" Connor's (police commissioner) effort to maintain racial segregation." As a result of the violent spectacle in Birmingham, which was becoming an international embarrassment, the Kennedy administration finally drafted civil rights legislation to end Jim Crow once and for all.
So, here we are in the late summer of 1963, Randolph finally realized his vision for a March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The March attracts some 250,000 people to the nation's capital. It is a peaceful and beautiful picture of a truly integrated citizenry. No one is hurt or shot. The police are not a threat, and the message of peace is heard, not only in the U.S. but the world. The rally was the high point of the Civil Rights Movement, and it did help keep the issue in the public consciousness.
the March on Washington, August 28, 1963. Shows civil rights and union leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr., Joseph L. Rauh Jr., Whitney Young, Roy Wilkins, Asa Philip Randolph, Walter Reuther, and Sam Weinblatt.
Can You See Now?
Trust in What You Don't Understand
Unfortunately, three months later, President Kennedy was assassinated. It would take almost another year before Lyndon B. Johnson could pass the Civil Rights Act and ensure no discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, and later sexual orientation and gender identity.
I am forever grateful to the strong men and women who stand up and speak for a better world for all of us to share. No violence or hate when we are marching together—just unity.
Asa Philip Randolph standing to the right of President John F. Kennedy.
The other prominant civil rights leaders in attendances are (left to right): Willard Wirtz (Secretary of Labor); Floyd McKissick (CORE); Mathew Ahmann (National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice); Whitney Young (National Urban Leage); Martin Luther King, Jr. (SCLC); John Lewis (SNCC); Rabbi Joachim Prinz (American Jewish Congress); Asa Philip Randolph, with Reverend Eugene Carson Blake partially visible behind him; President John F. Kennedy; Walter Reuther (labor leader), with Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson partially visible behind him; and Roy Wilkins (NAACP).
