A. Philip Randolph
American civil-rights activist
Asa Philip Randolph, (born April 15, 1889, Crescent City, Florida, U.S.—died May 16, 1979, New York, New York), a trade unionist and civil-rights leader who was an influential figure in the struggle for justice and equality for African Americans.
The son of a Methodist minister, Randolph moved to the Harlem district of New York City in 1911. He attended City College at night and, with Chandler Owen, established (1912) an employment agency through which he attempted to organize Black workers. In 1917, following the entry of the United States into World War I, the two men founded a magazine, The Messenger (after 1929, Black Worker), that called for more positions for Blacks in the war industry and the armed forces. 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 Black 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 its 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 Pres. 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 Pres. 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 the 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 persons to the capital on August 28, 1963, to demonstrate support for civil rights for Blacks. Two years later, he formed the A. Philip Randolph Institute for community leaders to study the causes of poverty. Suffering chronic illness, he resigned his presidency of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1968 and retired from public life.
Bayard Rustin
A civil rights organizer and activist, best known for his work as an adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1950s and '60s.
Bayard Rustin moved to New York in the 1930s and was involved in pacifist groups and early civil rights protests. Combining non-violent resistance with organizational skills, he was a key adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s. Though he was arrested several times for his own civil disobedience and open homosexuality, he continued to fight for equality.
Bayard Rustin was born on March 17, 1912, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He had been raised to believe that his parents were Julia and Janifer Rustin, when in fact they were his grandparents. He discovered the truth before adolescence, that the woman he thought was his sibling, Florence, was in fact his mother, who'd had Rustin with West Indian immigrant Archie Hopkins.
Rustin attended Wilberforce University in Ohio, and Cheyney State Teachers College (now Cheney University of Pennsylvania) in Pennsylvania, both historically Black schools. In 1937 he moved to New York City and studied at City College of New York. He was briefly involved with the Young Communist League in the 1930s before he became disillusioned with its activities and resigned.
In his personal philosophy, Rustin combined the pacifism of the Quaker religion, the non-violent resistance taught by Mahatma Gandhi, and the socialism espoused by African American labor leader A. Philip Randolph. During the Second World War, he worked for Randolph, fighting against racial discrimination in war-related hiring. After meeting A. J. Muste, a minister, and labor organizer, also participated in several pacifist groups, including the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
Rustin was punished several times for his beliefs. During the war, he was jailed for two years when he refused to register for the draft. When he took part in protests against the segregated public transit system in 1947, he was arrested in North Carolina and sentenced to work on a chain gang for several weeks. In 1953 he was arrested on a morals charge for publicly engaging in homosexual activity and was sent to jail for 60 days; however, he continued to live as an openly gay man.
By the 1950s, Rustin was an expert organizer of human rights protests. In 1958, he played an important role in coordinating a march in Aldermaston, England, in which 10,000 attendees demonstrated against nuclear weapons.
Rustin met the young civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1950s and began working with King as an organizer and strategist in 1955. He taught King about Gandhi's philosophy of non-violent resistance and advised him on the tactics of civil disobedience. He assisted King with the boycott of segregated buses in Montgomery, Alabama in 1956. Most famously, Rustin was a key figure in the organization of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, at which King delivered his legendary "I Have a Dream" speech on August 28, 1963.
In 1965, Rustin and his mentor Randolph co-founded the A. Philip Randolph Institute, a labor organization for African American trade union members. Rustin continued his work within the civil rights and peace movements and was much in demand as a public speaker.
Rustin received numerous awards and honorary degrees throughout his career. His writings about civil rights were published in the collection Down the Line in 1971 and in Strategies for Freedom in 1976. Rustin died of a ruptured appendix in New York City on August 24, 1987, at the age of 75
Norman Hill Activist and organizer Norman Hill was present for every major development in the civil rights movement during the 1960s.
"Norman Hill (born April 22, 1933, in Summit, New Jersey) is an influential African-American administrator, activist, and labor leader. He attended Haverford College in Pennsylvania and received a bachelor’s degree in 1956 in the field of sociology. He was one of the first African-Americans to graduate from Haverford. After college, Hill served in the military. After returning from military service, he moved to Chicago to join the Civil Rights Movement and to pursue a master's degree at the University of Chicago School of Social Welfare, which he dropped in favor of more direct social action. Hill was appointed Chicago Coordinator and held various positions in projects around Chicago, including Youth March for Integrated Schools, Secretary of Chicago Area Negro American Labor Council, and Staff Chairman of the Chicago March Conventions. Another endeavor Hill joined was the Congress of Racial Equality. In this organization, Hill was first the East Coast Field Secretary and then moved his way up to the position of National Program Director. As National Program Director, Hill coordinated the Route 40 desegregation of restaurants, and the Waldorf campaign, and illustrated the civil rights demonstration that took place at the 1964 Republican National Convention.
Connected Organizations
A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI) (Non-profit)
FORMER PRESIDENT
American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) (Labor Union)
FORMER LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIVE
Communications Workers of America (CWA) (Labor Union)
MEMBER
FORMER TRUSTEE
League for Industrial Democracy (LID) (Non-profit)
FORMER BOARD MEMBER
National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (Non-profit)
FOUNDING MEMBER
National Committee on Pay Equity (Non-profit)
MEMBER
Workers Defense League (Non-profit)
ADVISORY COUNCIL MEMBER
The powerful true story of the first Black-controlled union, The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
When the Great Depression struck America in the 1920s finding work was hard, but if you were poor and Black it was virtually impossible. Working as a porter for the Pullman Rail Company was an option, but it meant taking home a third as much as white employees and working some days for free. You could forget about being called by your real name—all Black porters were simply called “George” after George Pullman.
Asa Philip Randolph, a Black journalist and socialist trying to establish a voice for these forgotten workers, agrees to fight for the Pullman porters’ cause and form the first black union in America. Livelihoods and lives would be put at risk in the attempt to gain 10,000 signatures of the men known only as “George.” This is the true story of how a courageous leader came to be known as “the most dangerous man in America.” [Producer’s description.]
Detailed description of the film from vernonjohns.org.
Written by Cyrus Nowrasteh. Actors: Andre Braugher, Charles S. Dutton, Mario Van Peebles, Brock Peters, Carla Brothers.
WATCH THE MOVIE: 10,000 Black Men name George