A. Philip Randolph, who Martin Luther King, Jr. called "the conscience of the labor movement," played a crucial role in gaining recognition of African American interests among labor groups. A socialist and a pacifist, Randolph founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first successful black trade union, and the Negro American Labor Council.
Randolph, the youngest son of a poor preacher deeply committed to racial politics, was born in Crescent City, Florida, on 15 April 1889. Following his graduation from Cookman Institute in 1911, Randolph moved to New York City where he took classes at City College and became involved in socialist politics.
In 1917, Randolph and Owen Chandler founded the Messenger, an African-American, socialist journal critical of American involvement in World War I. Randolph was arrested for protesting the war, but never prosecuted. In 1920, he garnered 200,000 votes as the socialist candidate for state controller of New York. The state’s Attorney General Mitchell Palmer dubbed Randolph "the black Lenin" and the "most dangerous black in America."
In 1925, Randolph founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Up against the power of Pullman's company union, as well as opposition in the black press, he successfully built a national organizing committee. In 1935, following the establishment of the Labor Relations Board (a product of New Deal legislation), the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters succeeded in gaining recognition from the Pullman Palace Car Company. The union signed its first contract with the company in 1937, and membership rose to nearly 15,000.
In 1941, Randolph threatened a march on Washington if the federal government did not enact legislation addressing racial discrimination in the defense industry. In response, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order #8802, which banned racial discrimination in government-contracted defense industries and established the Fair Employment Practices Committee. Randolph also helped to form the League for Nonviolent Civil Disobedience Against Military Segregation, which influenced president Truman's decision to desegregate the armed services in 1948.
After the American Federation of Labor merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations to form the AFL-CIO in 1955, Randolph was appointed to the new organization's executive council and became its first black vice-president two years later. Randolph served as a spokesman for blacks and other minority groups and worked to end discriminatory practices in organized labor. In 1959, Randolph founded the Negro American Labor Council in an effort to effectively present the demands of black workers to the labor movement.
Randolph and the council helped initiate the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. The march brought over 250,000 people to the nation's capital. While the National Council of the AFL-CIO declined to support the march, adopting a position of neutrality, a number of international unions independently declared their support and were present in substantial numbers. Hundreds of local unions supported the effort as well.
Randolph devoted his life to the achievement of both racial and economic equality. As a long-standing activist with connections to a number of different constituencies and organizations, Randolph often served as a mediator between competing factions of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. He died on 16 May 1979.