ASA PHILIP RANDOLPH - UNION ORGANIZER - 1889-1979

excerpt from A SALUTE TO BLACK CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS, An Empak "Black History" Publication Series Vol. IV

Asa Philip Randolph, a powerful union organizer and civil rights leader, spent forty years of his life in constant battle for better working conditions and higher wages for all laborers.  He founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925 and became its first president.

Randolph, born on April 15, 1889, in Crescent City, Florida, was the son of James W. Randolph, an itinerant minister of slave parentage.... After completing high school, Asa traveled to New York City and entered City College....

By 1925, the Pullman Company, builders, operators of sleeping cars and parlor cars for the nation's railroads, was the largest single employer of Blacks in the United States.  It paid its 12,000 porters about $60.00 per month for 400 hours or 11,000 miles, whichever came first.  Porters were required to pay for their meals and ...their own uniforms.... They  also worked straight through without layover time. 

Ramdolph was secretly asked to organize the porters because he was an outsider and could not be hurt buy the Pullman company.  After several meetings, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was formed on August 25, 1925.... Twelve years to the day, August 25, 1937, Pullman's president announced to the Brotherhood negotiators, "Gentlemen, the Pullman company is ready to sign.".... This contract included a wage settlement of $1.25 million, and the porters' work month was reduced from 400 hours to 240 hours....

Also, between 1940 and 1948, Randolph was highly instrumental in desegrating the war industries, federal employment, and the armed forces.  In 1963, he was responsible for organizing and bringing together over 250,000 people, of all races, in the historic "March on Washington" for jobs and freedom.  It was at this gathering that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream" address, which stirred the souls of the nation.

The greatness of Asa Philip Randolph and his contributions to Black Americans can never be forgotten, for they are recorded in the pages of history and remembered in the hearts of men.  He died at age ninety in 1979.