A Grateful Tribute to A. Philip Randolph,
Who Came So Far by Faith (continued)

Although wages and benefits for the porters dramatically increased from $810 annually in 1926 and a choice between serving 400 hours and month or 11,000 miles year, which was essentially no choice, Randolph did not rest on his laurels.

In 1941, he threatened President Roosevelt with a massive demonstration in the Nation's Capital, comprised of 125,000 marching blacks, if he refused to provide lucrative war employment for all black Americans. Roosevelt, faced with Randolph's quiet, but no nonsense leadership, relented and signed Executive Order 8802, which opened the doors for millions of blacks in shipyards, munitions plants and factories producing war-related items.

In 1948, Randolph issued his second such threat to invade Washington with 125,00 black protesters, this time to President Truman. Randolph knew that the historically segregated Armed Forces were a major barrier to black advancement and thus had to be broken.

Truman, never having forgotten Randolph's successful threat issued only seven years before, in 1941--and needing the black vote against South Carolinian Strom Thurmond and his Dixiecrat Party and an energized Thomas Dewey, the Republican presidential candidate, gave in quietly, like Roosevelt before him, and signed Executive Order 9981..

No other labor leader in the nation's history, before or since then, has ever out-witted two presidents and check-mated them into signing, not one, but Two executive orders!

In early 1963, an aging but restless Randolph plotted one more major coup. This time his major ally was his trusted lieutenant, the brilliant author, lecturer, singer, peace activist and socialist theorist, Bayard Rustin.

Randolph had chosen Rustin in the early 1940s, when the young conscientious objector was a nationally respected leader in the War Resisters movement.

Ever alert to recruit, aid and abet, principled young leaders, Randolph, in 1955, sent Rustin to Montgomery, Alabama, to shore up young Martin Luther King's leadership skills with the fundamental elements of non-violent, civil disobedience. Within weeks, King had absorbed the techniques and sharpened the weapon he would ultimately employ to defeat the entrenched enemies of racism and discrimination.

In early 1963, Randolph, longing for a final victory in the Nation's Capital, convened a meeting in New York City at the Commodore Hotel, where the other five of the "Big Six" black leaders heard his appeal for a massive "March on Washington for Peace, Freedom and Jobs."

Having already secured a commitment from King to be the keynote speaker, Randolph asked the five leaders for their support and resources.

All of them asked Randolph to chair its leadership, which he gladly consented to do, if and only if, they would accept Rustin as the March's official organizer and chief architect.

And so, Randolph, the master labor strategist and tactician, saw his name stamped on the most dramatic and compelling civil rights March in the nation's history. Comprised of 250,000 strong, black and white men and women together, it became a reality, through his vision, determination and reliance on the spiritual and ethical forces which, in the darkest days of his leadership, inspired and drove him on behalf of the poor and suffering.

The historic March, a reverential symbol of enduring progressive social and economic change, also bore the fruit for decades to come : Passage of the greatest civil rights legislation in America's history, in particular, the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

For all this and much more, accomplished largely behind the scenes, no tributes or salutes to Randolph, his life, accomplishments and memory can found for far too long.

Rest in peace until we see you in the flesh, Brother Randolph, our brother, friend, leader and uncompromising spiritual guide.

Back to Part 1 of "A Grateful Tribute to A. Philip Randolph..."

 

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