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A. Philip Randolph's devotion to trade unionism helped shape his perspective on civil rights that racial freedom, while inestimable, still required parallel economic progress. Because trade unionism had been the main engine of economic advancement for the working class, and most blacks were workers, he advocated a grand alliance between blacks and the trade union movement.
In the Harlem of Randolph's years, it took courage for a black intellectual to advocate such an alliance. Many blacks regarded organized labor as an enemy of racial integration, because blacks were barred from most of labor's craft unions. Randolph relentlessly attacked unions that excluded black workers. His tireless agitation caused clashes with American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) President George Meany, but Randolph understood the political and organizational problems that Meany had with the all-white unions, and Meany recognized Randolph's tenacity and the justice of his cause. When Randolph resigned as an AFL-CIO vice-president in 1974, organized labor had become the most integrated American institution, even if pockets of resistance remained. Randolph, one of the greatest black labor leaders in American history, played a key role in the progress through his ceaseless agitation and unflagging struggle for racial and economic democracy in the American workplace. |
Click on the links below to view the images in this part of the exhibit:
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters charter application (front), 1936 Randolph meets with officers and organizers of the Railway Workers Union, ca. 1950 AFL-CIO merger convention, 1955 Randolph picketing in New York City, ca. 1960s Randolph, AFL-CIO vice-president, addresses the 1961 AFL-CIO convention Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters New York office, ca. 1962 Front cover, The Freedom Budget, 1965 U.S. Postal Service commemorative stamp honoring Randolph, 1989 |
Created on March 9, 2001; last updated on September 19, 2006.
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