Full Text of HR0830 102nd General Assembly
HR0830 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, A. Philip Randolph was born Asa Philip Randolph | 3 | | on April 15, 1889 in Crescent City, Florida to parents who were | 4 | | staunch supporters of equal rights for African Americans and | 5 | | general human rights; in 1891, the Randolph family moved to | 6 | | Jacksonville, Florida, where A. Philip would live for most of | 7 | | his youth; he attended the Cookman Institute, one of the first | 8 | | institutions of higher education for blacks in the country; he | 9 | | was a member of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity; and
| 10 | | WHEREAS, In 1911, after graduating from Cookman, A. Philip | 11 | | Randolph moved to the Harlem neighborhood of New York City; | 12 | | during this time, he studied English literature and sociology | 13 | | at City College and juggled a variety of jobs, including work | 14 | | as an elevator operator, a porter, and a waiter, while | 15 | | developing his rhetorical skills simultaneously; in 1912, he | 16 | | made his first move into politics and co-founded an employment | 17 | | agency, the Brotherhood of Labor, as a way to organize Black | 18 | | workers; and
| 19 | | WHEREAS, In 1913, A. Philip Randolph married Howard | 20 | | University graduate and beauty shop entrepreneur Lucille | 21 | | Green; shortly thereafter, he organized a drama society in | 22 | | Harlem and performed in several productions; in 1917, he | 23 | | co-founded a political magazine, The Messenger, and began |
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| 1 | | publishing articles calling for the inclusion of more Blacks | 2 | | in the Armed Forces and war industry and demanding higher | 3 | | wages; he also tried to unionize African American shipyard | 4 | | workers in Virginia and elevator operators in New York City; | 5 | | and | 6 | | WHEREAS, After World War I ended, A. Philip Randolph | 7 | | became a lecturer at the Rand School of Social Science; in the | 8 | | early 1920s, he unsuccessfully ran for office in New York | 9 | | State and became more convinced than ever that unions would be | 10 | | the best way for African Americans to improve their situation; | 11 | | and | 12 | | WHEREAS, In 1925, A. Philip Randolph founded the | 13 | | Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) and served as its | 14 | | president; he sought to gain the union's official inclusion in | 15 | | the American Federation of Labor, the affiliates of which, at | 16 | | that time, frequently barred African Americans from | 17 | | membership; the BSCP met with resistance primarily from the | 18 | | Pullman Company, which was the largest employer of Blacks at | 19 | | that time; A. Philip persisted and won membership in the AFL in | 20 | | 1937, making the BSCP the first African American union in the | 21 | | United States; and | 22 | | WHEREAS, During the 1940s, A. Philip Randolph twice used | 23 | | mass protests as a means of influencing the policies of the |
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| 1 | | federal government; he planned a march on Washington to | 2 | | protest discrimination in the war industry workforce but | 3 | | called off the march after President Franklin D. Roosevelt | 4 | | issued an executive order that banned racial discrimination at | 5 | | government defense factories and established the first Fair | 6 | | Employment Practices Committee; he also organized the League | 7 | | for Nonviolent Civil Disobedience Against Military | 8 | | Segregation, which eventually led President Harry S. Truman to | 9 | | issue a 1948 executive order banning racial segregation in the | 10 | | 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); in 1957, he organized a prayer | 14 | | pilgrimage to Washington, D.C. to draw attention to the delay | 15 | | of school desegregation being implemented in the South; he | 16 | | also organized the Youth Marches for Integrated Schools and | 17 | | formed the Negro American Labor Council in 1959; and
| 18 | | WHEREAS, In 1963, A. Philip Randolph was a principal | 19 | | organizer of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, | 20 | | during which he spoke to an integrated crowd of nearly 250,000 | 21 | | supporters; he shared the podium with Martin Luther King Jr., | 22 | | who delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech; A. Philip and | 23 | | Dr. King were among the handful of civil rights leaders to meet | 24 | | with President John F. Kennedy after the march; and
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, The following year, A. Philip Randolph was | 2 | | presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President | 3 | | Lyndon B. Johnson; soon after, he co-founded the A. Philip | 4 | | Randolph Institute, an organization aimed at studying the | 5 | | causes of poverty; and | 6 | | WHEREAS, A. Philip Randolph resigned from his more than | 7 | | 40-year tenure as president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car | 8 | | Porters in 1968; he also retired from public life and spent the | 9 | | next few years writing his autobiography; he died in bed at his | 10 | | New York City home on May 16, 1979 at age 90; he was cremated, | 11 | | and his ashes were interred at the A. Philip Randolph | 12 | | Institute in Washington, D.C.; therefore, be it
| 13 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 14 | | HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 15 | | we recognize the life of A. Philip Randolph, American labor | 16 | | unionist and civil rights activist, and we honor his legacy.
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