A. Philip
Randolph:
Service not
Servitude
Greg Oppel, NBCT
Edmond Memorial High School
OKCHE Symposium 2008
Building & Working On And For
The Railroads
• During slavery, companies purchased slaves to work on the
railroads. For example, it is documented that as early as 1838, a
southern railroad company purchased 140 slaves for $159,000 to
work on the construction of a railroad line in Mississippi. There were
many slaves on the southern plantations who did more than
agricultural work and manual labor in the fields. Some slaves were
highly skilled as coopers, carpenters, mechanics, cabinetmakers,
and masons. Many slave owners trained their slaves in these trades
so that they could be hired out or sold for a higher price. There is
scant documentation available to estimate the true numbers of
slaves employed on the railroads. However, it is possible and likely
that there were thousands of skilled tradesman and manual laborers
used in the construction of the many miles of American railroad.
Civil War and Industrial Revolution
• When Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation
Proclamation Act in 1863, the United States had
made few provisions for the future employment
of freed slaves. As a result, former slaves who
left the plantations found limited opportunities
other than those to which they had become
accustomed: manual labor in the fields and
factories or domestic positions such as cleaners,
cooks, and servants. The newly found wealth
generated by the Industrial Revolution increased
the availability of such jobs.
American Railroad Travel Begins
• The railroad sleeping car was developed during the industrial
revolution. Within a few years, its success created huge increases in
the transportation industry. This national need for labor provided free
African-Americans with new employment opportunities in a new
industry. The passenger railroad industry provided national travel for
people even before the invention of the automobile and construction
of the national highway system, and the advent of commercial air
flight. The Pullman Palace Car Company built, owned, and operated
the majority of the passenger trains during this era. These luxurious
trains were known as "hotels on wheels" because passengers could
amuse themselves with social activities and conversation in the
lounge cars, eat meals in the dining cars, and rest comfortably
overnight in the sleeping cars. Train travel was truly revolutionary
because it allowed the common person a higher level of personal
freedom and traveling comfort than ever before in history.
Ambassadors of Hospitality
• During the heyday of railroad
travel, the Pullman Porters
were the workers aboard the
trains. They provided service
to and attended to the needs of
the passengers. In the
beginning, the Pullman
Company hired only AfricanAmerican men for the job of
porter. The Pullman Porters
and the excellent service they
provided were integral and
indispensable to the rise and
success of the passenger
railroad industry.
Service not Servitude
• During the century spanning
the years 1868-1968, the
African-American railroad
attendant's presence on the
train became a tradition within
the American scene. By the
1920s, a peak decade for the
railroads, 20,224 AfricanAmericans were working as
Pullman Porters and train
personnel. At that time, this
was the largest category of
black labor in the United
States and Canada.
• The motto of
the
Brotherhood
was
"Fight or Be
Slaves."
• For many African Americans the Emancipation
Proclamation meant a shift from chattel to wage
slavery. One of the most prestigious jobs a black
man could get was to be a Pullman Car Porter.
Most were elated to get out of their denims, a
symbol of slavery, and into a clean uniform. But
they soon discovered that the Pullman Company
also had a "plantation mentality." With his very
low wages, a porter was expected to pay for his
uniform, shoe shining equipment and other
supplies. He was dependent on the tips of the
wealthy white passengers to survive.
Founding of the Union
• The Pullman Porters organized
and founded the Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters in
1925. The BSCP was the very
first African-American labor
union to sign a collective
bargaining agreement with a
major U.S. corporation. A.
Philip Randolph was the
determined, dedicated, and
articulate president of this
union who fought to improve
the working conditions and pay
for the Pullman Porters.
• The porters had tried to organize since the begining of the century.
The wages and working conditions were below average for
decades. For example, the porters were required to work 400 hours
per month or 11,000 miles—whichever occurred first to receive full
pay. Porters depended on the passengers' tips in order to earn a
decent level of pay. Typically, the porters' tips were more than their
monthly salary earned from the Pullman Company. After many years
of suffering these types of conditions, the porters united with A.
Philip Randolph as their leader. Finally, having endured threats from
the Pullman Company such as job loss and harassment, the BSCP
forced the company to the bargaining table. On August 25, 1937,
after 12 years of battle, the BSCP was recognized as the official
union of the Pullman Porters.
• Protected by the union, the job of a Pullman Porter was one of
economic stability and held high social prestige in the AfricanAmerican community. A. Philip Randolph utilized the power of the
labor union and the unity that it represented to demand significant
social changes for African-Americans nationally. The museum's
exhibits tell the story of the power of unity, leadership, action,
organization, and determination. This story is one of ordinary men
who did extraordinary things. A. Philip Randolph and the members
of the BSCP understood the power of collective work and
community involvement. They improved the quality of life for
themselves and made sure that their efforts improved the lives of
those who were to follow. They worked together to fight many battles
and they won many victories for African-American people. They
demonstrated and personified the meaning of the word brotherhood.
These African-American men were American heroes.
• The Pullman Company took full advantage
of racism. Porters were allowed very little
rest while traveling across country. They
often had to perform the conductor's job
(at a much lower rate) in addition to their
own work, thus facing the hostility of white
workers.
• The porters not only waged a long hard fight against
the Pullman Company, they also had to struggle to
gain admittance to the American Federation of
Labor. As several black delegates emphasized at the
1919 and 1920 conventions, they had proven their
loyality to this country by spilling more than their share of
blood in many wars. Yet, they could not join or receive
equal representation by joining the unions of the AFL.
Many black workers instead formed their own
independent unions or joined the interracial I.W.W. But
even in the late 1920s and early 1930s AFL support was
only lip service.
Redcap cartoon
"The Modern
'Gulliver" from an
article by
Brotherhood of
Sleeping Car Porters
founder A. Philip
Randolph in The
Messenger, Harlem's
magazine of socialist
politics, 1926.
1937
March on Washington 1941
•
A. Philip Randolph first planned a
March on Washington in 1941 to
protest against governmental
hiring practices that excluded
African-Americans from federal
employment and federal contracts.
Randolph understood that this
type of racial discrimination was
the reason for the economic
disparities between whites and
blacks in this country. Randolph
proposed that African-Americans
march on Washington to demand
jobs and freedom. Because of
this, President Roosevelt signed
Executive Order 8802, which
banned discrimination in the
federal government and defense
industries in June 1941.
• A. Philip Randolph, President of the Brotherhood of
Sleeping Car Porters issues his famous call for 50,000
people to join a July 1st march on Washington to protest
against segregation, particularly in the armed forces and
defense industries during the war. By June estimates of
the number of people expecting to participate reached
100,000, forcing President Roosevelt to sign Executive
Order 8802, banning discrimination by any defense
contractors and establishing the Fair Employment
Practices Committee (FEPC) to investigate charges of
racial discrimination.
• The papers of A. Philip
Randolph document his
protests against
segregation, particularly
in the armed forces and
defense industries during
the war. Randolph led a
successful movement
during World War II to
end segregation in
defense industries by
threatening to bring
thousands of blacks to
protest in Washington, D.
C., in 1941.
• The threatened March on Washington in
1941 prompted President Franklin D.
Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 8802,
stating that there should be "no
discrimination in the employment of
workers in defense industries or
Government because of race, creed, color,
or national origin." The Committee on Fair
Employment Practices was established to
handle discrimination complaints.
• Even after the
union won
recognition,
the Pullman
Company
continued to
portray porters
as eager to please
and childish.
This depiction is
from 1943.
A. Philip Randolph and Grant Reynolds testifying 1948 against
segregation in the military.
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From coast to coast in my travels I shall call upon all Negro veterans to join this civil disobedience
movement and to recruit their younger brothers in an organized refusal to register and be drafted.
Many veterans, bitter over Army Jim Crow, have indicated that they will act spontaneously in this
fashion, regardless of any organized movement. “Never again,” they say with finality.
I shall appeal to the thousands of white youth in schools and colleges who are today vigorously
shedding the prejudices of their parents and professors. I shall urge them to demonstrate their
solidarity with Negro youth by ignoring the entire registration and induction machinery.
And finally I shall appeal to Negro parents to lend their moral support to their sons, to stand behind
them as they march with heads high to Federal prisons as a telling demonstration to the world that
Negroes have reached the limit of human endurance, that, in the words of the spiritual, we will be
buried in our graves before we will be slaves.
Randolph explained that he had adopted this confrontational strategy as a desperate last resort
because of the gross hypocrisy of the committee’s chairman and of his party, the Republican:
Your party, the party of Lincoln, solemnly pledged in its 1944 platform a full-fledged congressional
investigation of injustices to Negro soldiers. Instead of that long overdue probe, the Senate Armed
Services Committee on this very day is finally hearing testimony from two or three Negro veterans for
a period of 20 minutes each. The House Armed Services Committee and Chairman [Walter C.]
Andrews went one step further and arrogantly refused to hear any at all.
Since we cannot obtain an adequate Congressional forum for our grievances, we have no other
recourse but to tell our story to the peoples of the world by organized direct action. I do not believe
that even a wartime censorship wall could be high enough to conceal news of a civil disobedience
program.
If we cannot win your support for your own party commitments, if we cannot ring a bell in you by
appealing to human decency, we shall command your respect and the respect of the world by our
united refusal to cooperate with tyrannical injustice.
Since the military with their southern biases, intend to take over America and institute total
encampment of the populace along Jim Crow lines, Negroes will resist with the power of nonviolence,
with the weapons of moral principles, with the good-will- weapons of the spirit; yes, with the weapons
that brought freedom to India.
I feel morally obligated to disturb and keep disturbed the conscience of Jim Crow America.
A. Philip Randolph leads protest against a Jim Crow Army outside the
Democratic National Committee.
March on Washington 1963
• As a result of the groundwork laid 22 years
earlier for the 1941 March on Washington,
A. Philip Randolph was prepared for the
leadership role he held in the 1963 March
on Washington. With Bayard Rustin as the
main organizer of the march, Randolph was
able to unite the many groups and leaders
that comprised this national call for masses
of people to take action.
On August 28, 1963, 250,000 people
attended this monumental march which set
a precedent demonstrating the power of
unity and action. After the march, Randolph,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Whitney Young,
Roy Wilkins, John Lewis and others met
with President Kennedy. Within a year, the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed.
Randolph's leadership influenced many
leaders including Dr. King, and Malcolm X.
• The idea for the 1963 March on Washington was envisioned by A.
Philip Randolph, a long-time civil rights activist dedicated to
improving the economic condition of black Americans. When
Randolph first proposed the march in late 1962, he received little
response from other civil rights leaders. He knew that cooperation
would be difficult because each had his own agenda for the civil
rights movement, and the leaders competed for funding and press
coverage. Success of the March on Washington would depend on
the involvement of the so-called Big SixRandolph and the heads of
the five major civil rights organizations: Roy Wilkins of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP);
Whitney Young, Jr., of the National Urban League; Rev. Martin
Luther King, Jr., of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC); James Farmer of the Conference of Racial Equality
(CORE); and John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC).
• The details and organization of the march were
handled by Bayard Rustin, Randolphs trusted
associate. Rustin was a veteran activist with
extensive experience in putting together mass
protest. With only two months to plan, Rustin
established his headquarters in Harlem, NY, with
a smaller office in Washington. He and his core
staff of 200 volunteers quickly put together the
largest peaceful demonstration in U.S. history.
Webliography
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http://www.pbs.org/weta/apr/
http://www.apri.org/
http://www.aphiliprandolphmuseum.com/
http://www.clarencemitchellpapers.com/Ra
ndolph.htm
• http://www.umkc.edu/labored/history12.htm
• http://www.laborarts.org/exhibits/sampler/i
mage.cfm?ID=18