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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, A. Philip Randolph was born Asa Philip Randolph on
3April 15, 1889 in Crescent City, Florida; he was the second son
4of James Randolph, a Methodist minister, and his wife,
5Elizabeth, both of whom were staunch supporters of equal rights
6for African Americans and general human rights; in 1891, the
7Randolph family moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where A. Philip
8would live for most of his youth; he attended the Cookman
9Institute, one of the first institutions of higher education
10for blacks in the country; and
 
11    WHEREAS, In 1911, after graduating from Cookman, A. Philip
12Randolph moved to the Harlem neighborhood of New York City;
13during this time, he studied English literature and sociology
14at City College; he held a variety of jobs, including as an
15elevator operator, a porter, and a waiter, and developed his
16rhetorical skills; in 1912, he founded an employment agency
17called the Brotherhood of Labor as a way to organize black
18workers; his efforts began when he was working as a waiter on a
19coastal steamship, and he organized a rally against their poor
20living conditions; and
 
21    WHEREAS, In 1913, A. Philip Randolph married Howard
22University graduate and beauty shop entrepreneur Lucille
23Green; shortly thereafter, he organized a drama society in

 

 

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1Harlem known as Ye Friends of Shakespeare and played several
2roles in subsequent productions; in 1917, he co-founded a
3political magazine, The Messenger, and began publishing
4articles calling for the inclusion of more blacks in the Armed
5Forces and war industry and demanding higher wages; he also
6tried to unionize African American shipyard workers in Virginia
7and elevator operators in New York City; and
 
8    WHEREAS, After World War I ended, A. Philip Randolph became
9a lecturer at the Rand School of Social Science; in the early
101920s, he unsuccessfully ran for office in New York State and
11became more convinced than ever that unions would be the best
12way for African Americans to improve their situation; and
 
13    WHEREAS, In 1925, A. Philip Randolph founded the
14Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) and served as its
15president; he sought to gain the union's official inclusion in
16the American Federation of Labor, the affiliates of which, at
17that time, frequently barred African Americans from
18membership; the BSCP met with resistance primarily from the
19Pullman Company, which was the largest employer of blacks at
20that time; A. Philip persisted and won membership in the AFL in
211937, making the BSCP the first African American union in the
22United States; and
 
23    WHEREAS, During the 1940s, A. Philip Randolph twice used

 

 

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1mass protests as a means of influencing the policies of the
2federal government; he planned a march on Washington to protest
3discrimination in the war industry workforce but called off the
4march after President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive
5order that banned racial discrimination at government defense
6factories and established the first Fair Employment Practices
7Committee; he also organized the League for Nonviolent Civil
8Disobedience Against Military Segregation, which eventually
9led President Harry S. Truman to issue a 1948 executive order
10banning racial segregation in the U.S. Armed Forces; and
 
11    WHEREAS, In 1955, A. Philip Randolph became a vice
12president of the newly merged entity AFL-CIO (Congress of
13Industrial Organizations); he continued to protest the
14systemic racial prejudice he found in the organization; in
151957, he organized a prayer pilgrimage to Washington, D.C. to
16draw attention to the delay of school desegregation being
17implemented in the South; he also organized the Youth Marches
18for Integrated Schools and formed the Negro American Labor
19Council in 1959; and
 
20    WHEREAS, In 1963, A. Philip Randolph was a principal
21organizer of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom,
22during which he spoke to an integrated crowd of nearly 250,000
23supporters; he shared the podium with Martin Luther King Jr.,
24who delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech; A. Philip and

 

 

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1Dr. King were among the handful of civil rights leaders to meet
2with President John F. Kennedy after the march; and
 
3    WHEREAS, The following year, A. Philip Randolph was
4presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President
5Lyndon B. Johnson; soon after, he co-founded the A. Philip
6Randolph Institute, an organization aimed at studying the
7causes of poverty; in 1965, at a White House conference, he
8proposed a poverty-elimination program called the Freedom
9Budget for All Americans; and
 
10    WHEREAS, A. Philip Randolph resigned from his more than
1140-year tenure as president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car
12Porters in 1968; he also retired from public life and spent the
13next few years writing his autobiography; he died in bed at his
14New York City home on May 16, 1979 at age 90; he was cremated,
15and his ashes were interred at the A. Philip Randolph Institute
16in Washington, D.C.; and
 
17    WHEREAS, A. Philip Randolph had a significant impact on the
18Civil Rights Movement from the 1930s onward; the Montgomery Bus
19Boycott in Alabama was influenced by his methods of nonviolent
20confrontation; nationwide, the Civil Rights Movement in the
211950s and 1960s used tactics pioneered by him, such as
22encouraging African Americans to vote as a bloc, mass voter
23registration, and training activists for nonviolent direct

 

 

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1action; many buildings, streets, and trains have been named in
2his honor, including the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter
3Museum in Chicago's Pullman Historic District; therefore, be it
 
4    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
5HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
6we recognize the life of A. Philip Randolph, a trailblazing
7leader, organizer, and social activist who championed
8equitable labor rights for African American communities during
9the 20th century, and we honor his legacy.