Primary Sources: People - Civil Rights in America: Randolph, Asa Philip

"Civil rights leader and labor activist A. Philip Randolph (1889–1979) recalls the appeal after World War I of the “Back to Africa” movement of Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey (1887–1940). The excerpt was included in NBC’s The American Revolution of ‘63, broadcast September 2, 1963."

"In this letter, labor leader A. Philip Randolph suggests to Walter White “a mass March on Washington” by thousands of African Americans to protest discrimination in defense industries and the armed forces. On June 18, 1941, A. Philip Randolph and Walter White met at the White House with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of War Robert Paterson, and other government officials. On June 25, the threat of the march prompted President Roosevelt to sign Executive Order 8802, which banned discrimination in defense industries receiving government contracts. The Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) was established to investigate and monitor hiring."

"Civil rights leader and labor activist A. Philip Randolph (1889–1979) relates an Oval Office encounter in 1941 with President Franklin D. Roosevelt that resulted in Roosevelt issuing Executive Order 8802, which banned discrimination in government and defense industry employment. The excerpt was included in A. Philip Randolph’s 50th Anniversary, a satellite news feed produced by the Labor Institute of Public Affairs (AFL-CIO), ca. 1991."

"The Messenger, an independent magazine, was founded by labor activist A. Philip Randolph and economist Chandler Owen in 1917 with the help of the Socialist party."
http://www.blackpast.org/aah/messenger-1917-1928

"The Messenger, an independent magazine, was founded by labor activist A. Philip Randolph and economist Chandler Owen in 1917 with the help of the Socialist party."
http://www.blackpast.org/aah/messenger-1917-1928

"This audio compilation captures the voices of A. Philip Randolph, Ralph Abernathy, Roy Wilkins, Walter Reuther, Ralph Bunche, and Daisy Bates."

"The Reminiscences of Dr. A. Philip Randolph," interview by Wendell Wray (New York: Columbia University Oral History Office, 18 July 1972), 104–9.
Courtesy of the A. Philip Randolph Institute and the Oral History Collection of Columbia University

"The Reminiscences of Dr. A. Philip Randolph," interview by Wendell Wray (New York: Columbia University Oral History Office, 18 July 1972), 130–36.
Courtesy of the A. Philip Randolph Institute and the Oral History Collection of Columbia University

"Socialism , although less important in the African-American community than growing concepts of racial militancy, was one of the many ideologies debated by black Americans in the 1920s. A. Philip Randolph, who in 1925 organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, was perhaps the leading black proponent of socialism as the only remedy for the plight of African Americans. In this March 1919 editorial in the Messenger, the radical newspaper that would later become the voice of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Randolph rejected the “leadership” of organizations such as the NAACP. Instead, he urged black and white workers to unite, form unions, and embrace socialism in order to win political gains and economic advancement." GMU History Matters