Full Text of HR0749 101st General Assembly
HR0749 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, A. Philip Randolph was born Asa Philip Randolph on | 3 | | April 15, 1889 in Crescent City, Florida; he was the second son | 4 | | of James Randolph, a Methodist minister, and his wife, | 5 | | Elizabeth, both of whom were staunch supporters of equal rights | 6 | | for African Americans and general human rights; in 1891, the | 7 | | Randolph family moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where A. Philip | 8 | | would live for most of his youth; he attended the Cookman | 9 | | Institute, one of the first institutions of higher education | 10 | | for blacks in the country; and
| 11 | | WHEREAS, In 1911, after graduating from Cookman, A. Philip | 12 | | Randolph moved to the Harlem neighborhood of New York City; | 13 | | during this time, he studied English literature and sociology | 14 | | at City College; he held a variety of jobs, including as an | 15 | | elevator operator, a porter, and a waiter, and developed his | 16 | | rhetorical skills; in 1912, he founded an employment agency | 17 | | called the Brotherhood of Labor as a way to organize black | 18 | | workers; his efforts began when he was working as a waiter on a | 19 | | coastal steamship, and he organized a rally against their poor | 20 | | living conditions; and
| 21 | | WHEREAS, In 1913, A. Philip Randolph married Howard | 22 | | University graduate and beauty shop entrepreneur Lucille | 23 | | Green; shortly thereafter, he organized a drama society in |
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| 1 | | Harlem known as Ye Friends of Shakespeare and played several | 2 | | roles in subsequent productions; in 1917, he co-founded a | 3 | | political magazine, The Messenger, and began publishing | 4 | | articles calling for the inclusion of more blacks in the Armed | 5 | | Forces and war industry and demanding higher wages; he also | 6 | | tried to unionize African American shipyard workers in Virginia | 7 | | and elevator operators in New York City; and | 8 | | WHEREAS, After World War I ended, A. Philip Randolph became | 9 | | a lecturer at the Rand School of Social Science; in the early | 10 | | 1920s, he unsuccessfully ran for office in New York State and | 11 | | became more convinced than ever that unions would be the best | 12 | | way for African Americans to improve their situation; and | 13 | | WHEREAS, In 1925, A. Philip Randolph founded the | 14 | | Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) and served as its | 15 | | president; he sought to gain the union's official inclusion in | 16 | | the American Federation of Labor, the affiliates of which, at | 17 | | that time, frequently barred African Americans from | 18 | | membership; the BSCP met with resistance primarily from the | 19 | | Pullman Company, which was the largest employer of blacks at | 20 | | that time; A. Philip persisted and won membership in the AFL in | 21 | | 1937, making the BSCP the first African American union in the | 22 | | United States; and | 23 | | WHEREAS, During the 1940s, A. Philip Randolph twice used |
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| 1 | | mass protests as a means of influencing the policies of the | 2 | | federal government; he planned a march on Washington to protest | 3 | | discrimination in the war industry workforce but called off the | 4 | | march after President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive | 5 | | order that banned racial discrimination at government defense | 6 | | factories and established the first Fair Employment Practices | 7 | | Committee; he also organized the League for Nonviolent Civil | 8 | | Disobedience Against Military Segregation, which eventually | 9 | | led President Harry S. Truman to issue a 1948 executive order | 10 | | banning racial segregation in the U.S. Armed Forces; and
| 11 | | WHEREAS, In 1955, A. Philip Randolph became a vice | 12 | | president of the newly merged entity AFL-CIO (Congress of | 13 | | Industrial Organizations); he continued to protest the | 14 | | systemic racial prejudice he found in the organization; in | 15 | | 1957, he organized a prayer pilgrimage to Washington, D.C. to | 16 | | draw attention to the delay of school desegregation being | 17 | | implemented in the South; he also organized the Youth Marches | 18 | | for Integrated Schools and formed the Negro American Labor | 19 | | Council in 1959; and
| 20 | | WHEREAS, In 1963, A. Philip Randolph was a principal | 21 | | organizer of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, | 22 | | during which he spoke to an integrated crowd of nearly 250,000 | 23 | | supporters; he shared the podium with Martin Luther King Jr., | 24 | | who delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech; A. Philip and |
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| 1 | | Dr. King were among the handful of civil rights leaders to meet | 2 | | with President John F. Kennedy after the march; and
| 3 | | WHEREAS, The following year, A. Philip Randolph was | 4 | | presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President | 5 | | Lyndon B. Johnson; soon after, he co-founded the A. Philip | 6 | | Randolph Institute, an organization aimed at studying the | 7 | | causes of poverty; in 1965, at a White House conference, he | 8 | | proposed a poverty-elimination program called the Freedom | 9 | | Budget for All Americans; and | 10 | | WHEREAS, A. Philip Randolph resigned from his more than | 11 | | 40-year tenure as president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car | 12 | | Porters in 1968; he also retired from public life and spent the | 13 | | next few years writing his autobiography; he died in bed at his | 14 | | New York City home on May 16, 1979 at age 90; he was cremated, | 15 | | and his ashes were interred at the A. Philip Randolph Institute | 16 | | in Washington, D.C.; and | 17 | | WHEREAS, A. Philip Randolph had a significant impact on the | 18 | | Civil Rights Movement from the 1930s onward; the Montgomery Bus | 19 | | Boycott in Alabama was influenced by his methods of nonviolent | 20 | | confrontation; nationwide, the Civil Rights Movement in the | 21 | | 1950s and 1960s used tactics pioneered by him, such as | 22 | | encouraging African Americans to vote as a bloc, mass voter | 23 | | registration, and training activists for nonviolent direct |
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| 1 | | action; many buildings, streets, and trains have been named in | 2 | | his honor, including the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter | 3 | | Museum in Chicago's Pullman Historic District; therefore, be it
| 4 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 5 | | HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 6 | | we recognize the life of A. Philip Randolph, a trailblazing | 7 | | leader, organizer, and social activist who championed | 8 | | equitable labor rights for African American communities during | 9 | | the 20th century, and we honor his legacy.
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