A. Philip Randolph Biography Quotes 6 Report mistakes
| 6 Quotes | |
| Born as | Asa Philip Randolph |
| Occup. | Activist |
| From | USA |
| Born | January 15, 1889 Crescent City, Florida, USA |
| Died | May 16, 1979 New York City, USA |
| Aged | 90 years |
Asa Philip Randolph was born on April 15, 1889, in Florida, and grew up in a household that prized education, moral discipline, and public service. His father was a minister and tailor, and his mother was a skilled seamstress; together they taught their sons to speak with clarity, to stand upright before injustice, and to believe that achievement demanded preparation. Randolph excelled in literature, rhetoric, and debate at the Cookman Institute in Jacksonville, where he sharpened the oratorical gifts that would later make him a commanding presence in union halls and on the national stage. Drawn by the ferment of the early twentieth century, he left the South for New York, settling in Harlem in the 1910s. There he continued to study in adult classes and became immersed in the city's rich political conversations.
In New York, Randolph married Lucille Green, a widow and entrepreneur whose steady encouragement and income allowed him to devote himself to organizing. She provided both a nurturing partnership and the practical support that sustained his early ventures when they had few resources. The couple had no children, and their home became a hub for visitors and activists who sought guidance, argument, and a plan.
Harlem, Socialism, and The Messenger
Harlem's intellectual life ignited Randolph's political imagination. He and the gifted writer Chandler Owen co-founded The Messenger in 1917, a magazine that offered sharp, fearless essays on labor rights, racial violence, and democracy. The two men were aligned with socialist ideas, taking cues from movements led by figures like Eugene V. Debs, while insisting that Black workers be central to any vision of economic justice. Randolph's editorials condemned discrimination by employers and by white-dominated unions alike, arguing that no democracy could survive if it tolerated a racial underclass. The magazine introduced him to a nationwide network of workers and reformers and trained him in the tactics of persuasion, coalition building, and relentless advocacy.
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
In the mid-1920s, Randolph accepted the challenge of helping Pullman porters organize. The porters' jobs, among the most visible for Black men in the private sector, also involved long hours, low pay, and daily humiliation. Randolph became the founding president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) in 1925. He worked alongside seasoned organizers such as Milton P. Webster in Chicago, C. L. Dellums on the West Coast, and Ashley Totten in New York. The company resisted fiercely, using intimidation, firings, and delay. Randolph answered with discipline: careful membership drives, legal strategy, and a public campaign that highlighted the dignity of the porters and the justice of their cause.
Years of patient organizing, aided by changes in federal labor law, culminated in a breakthrough. In 1937 the BSCP won formal recognition and secured a contract with the Pullman Company that brought wage increases, reduced hours, and a grievance process. It was the first national agreement won by a Black-led union, a landmark that validated Randolph's conviction that organization and moral suasion could pry open doors long held shut. The victory also illustrated his style: insistence on democratic procedure, financial probity, and personal austerity; he demanded of himself what he asked of the men he led.
March on Washington Movement and Federal Reforms
Randolph's labor gains convinced him that economic rights and civil rights were inseparable. As defense industries expanded during World War II, he launched the March on Washington Movement to protest discrimination in hiring and training. His call for a mass demonstration in the nation's capital confronted President Franklin D. Roosevelt with the risk of public embarrassment at a moment of national mobilization. The pressure helped yield Executive Order 8802, which prohibited discrimination in defense employment and created the Fair Employment Practices Committee. Randolph canceled the planned march but kept alive a model of independent leverage: mobilize people at the base, set a clear demand, and compel leaders to act.
After the war, Randolph turned to segregation in the armed forces. He signaled that young men might refuse induction into a Jim Crow military and helped organize campaigns of nonviolent pressure. The Truman administration responded with Executive Order 9981 in 1948, initiating desegregation of the services. Randolph's imprint was visible: nonviolent threat, precise demand, and uncompromising insistence that citizenship carried the same meaning for all.
Bridging Labor and Civil Rights
By the 1950s Randolph was an elder statesman in the labor movement. When the AFL and CIO merged in 1955, he became a vice president of the new federation, bringing the BSCP's voice into its leadership. He worked alongside allies such as Walter Reuther, pressing unions to open apprenticeship programs and local halls to Black workers and to confront discrimination within their own ranks. Dissatisfied with the pace of change, Randolph helped found the Negro American Labor Council in 1959 to organize Black trade unionists and to push for fair representation and hiring. He consistently argued that the ballot box and the union hall were twin pillars of freedom.
1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
Randolph's synthesis of jobs and rights reached its apex in 1963. With Bayard Rustin as chief organizer, he proposed a national march to demand civil rights legislation and full employment. The coalition that formed around the march reflected Randolph's long practice of alliance-building. The principal sponsors included Martin Luther King Jr., Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, John Lewis, and James Farmer, along with sympathetic labor leaders like Reuther and clergy across denominations. Randolph presided over the platform, opening the program with a call that linked citizenship to economic security and human dignity. King's famous address followed, but the structure of the day bore Randolph's imprint: disciplined, interracial, and focused on concrete goals such as fair employment and a higher minimum wage.
The march helped speed passage of landmark civil rights legislation and affirmed that labor rights belonged in the same frame as voting rights and public accommodations. It also solidified the working partnership between Randolph and Rustin, who together would build durable institutions to carry the work forward.
Institution Building, Recognition, and Later Years
Randolph received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964, a public acknowledgment of decades of principled leadership. He and Bayard Rustin established the A. Philip Randolph Institute in 1965 to strengthen the alliance between the labor movement and Black communities through voter education, training, and research. The BSCP continued to advance, and Randolph, having guided it from a fragile idea to a stable institution, retired as president in 1968. C. L. Dellums succeeded him, reflecting a generation of lieutenants Randolph had mentored and trusted.
The final decade of his life was marked by counsel rather than command. He spoke for full employment, public investment, and a labor movement that welcomed women and young workers. He mourned the passing of longtime associates while encouraging new leaders to carry a program that was as much moral as it was political. His wife, Lucille, died before him; their partnership, rooted in mutual respect, had made possible much of his public life.
A. Philip Randolph died in New York City on May 16, 1979. His legacy is visible in the language of rights that binds dignity at work to democratic equality, in the doors opened by the first Black-led national union, and in the enduring template of mass, nonviolent action that compels a nation to reconcile its practices with its promises. He proved that strategic patience joined to moral clarity can bend powerful institutions, and he left behind organizations, protégés, and a record of victories that continue to shape American labor and civil rights.
Our collection contains 6 quotes who is written by Philip Randolph, under the main topics: Justice - Freedom - Equality - Human Rights.
Other people realated to Philip Randolph: John F. Kennedy (President), Mary McLeod Bethune (Educator), Michael Harrington (Writer), Dorothy Height (Activist), James L. Farmer, Jr. (Activist), George Meany (Activist), Harry Bridges (Activist), Norman Thomas (Activist), Claude McKay (Writer)