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A. Philip Randolph: Service not Servitude. Greg Oppel, NBCT Edmond Memorial High School OKCHE Symposium 2008. Building & Working On And For The Railroads.
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A. Philip Randolph: Service not Servitude Greg Oppel, NBCT Edmond Memorial High School OKCHE Symposium 2008
Building & Working On And For The Railroads • During slavery, companies purchased slaves to work on the railroads. For example, it is documented that as early as 1838, a southern railroad company purchased 140 slaves for $159,000 to work on the construction of a railroad line in Mississippi. There were many slaves on the southern plantations who did more than agricultural work and manual labor in the fields. Some slaves were highly skilled as coopers, carpenters, mechanics, cabinetmakers, and masons. Many slave owners trained their slaves in these trades so that they could be hired out or sold for a higher price. There is scant documentation available to estimate the true numbers of slaves employed on the railroads. However, it is possible and likely that there were thousands of skilled tradesman and manual laborers used in the construction of the many miles of American railroad.
Civil War and Industrial Revolution • When Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation Act in 1863, the United States had made few provisions for the future employment of freed slaves. As a result, former slaves who left the plantations found limited opportunities other than those to which they had become accustomed: manual labor in the fields and factories or domestic positions such as cleaners, cooks, and servants. The newly found wealth generated by the Industrial Revolution increased the availability of such jobs.
American Railroad Travel Begins • The railroad sleeping car was developed during the industrial revolution. Within a few years, its success created huge increases in the transportation industry. This national need for labor provided free African-Americans with new employment opportunities in a new industry. The passenger railroad industry provided national travel for people even before the invention of the automobile and construction of the national highway system, and the advent of commercial air flight. The Pullman Palace Car Company built, owned, and operated the majority of the passenger trains during this era. These luxurious trains were known as "hotels on wheels" because passengers could amuse themselves with social activities and conversation in the lounge cars, eat meals in the dining cars, and rest comfortably overnight in the sleeping cars. Train travel was truly revolutionary because it allowed the common person a higher level of personal freedom and traveling comfort than ever before in history.
Ambassadors of Hospitality • During the heyday of railroad travel, the Pullman Porters were the workers aboard the trains. They provided service to and attended to the needs of the passengers. In the beginning, the Pullman Company hired only African-American men for the job of porter. The Pullman Porters and the excellent service they provided were integral and indispensable to the rise and success of the passenger railroad industry.
Service not Servitude • During the century spanning the years 1868-1968, the African-American railroad attendant's presence on the train became a tradition within the American scene. By the 1920s, a peak decade for the railroads, 20,224 African-Americans were working as Pullman Porters and train personnel. At that time, this was the largest category of black labor in the United States and Canada.
For many African Americans the Emancipation Proclamation meant a shift from chattel to wage slavery. One of the most prestigious jobs a black man could get was to be a Pullman Car Porter. Most were elated to get out of their denims, a symbol of slavery, and into a clean uniform. But they soon discovered that the Pullman Company also had a "plantation mentality." With his very low wages, a porter was expected to pay for his uniform, shoe shining equipment and other supplies. He was dependent on the tips of the wealthy white passengers to survive.
Founding of the Union • The Pullman Porters organized and founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925. The BSCP was the very first African-American labor union to sign a collective bargaining agreement with a major U.S. corporation. A. Philip Randolph was the determined, dedicated, and articulate president of this union who fought to improve the working conditions and pay for the Pullman Porters.
The porters had tried to organize since the begining of the century. The wages and working conditions were below average for decades. For example, the porters were required to work 400 hours per month or 11,000 miles—whichever occurred first to receive full pay. Porters depended on the passengers' tips in order to earn a decent level of pay. Typically, the porters' tips were more than their monthly salary earned from the Pullman Company. After many years of suffering these types of conditions, the porters united with A. Philip Randolph as their leader. Finally, having endured threats from the Pullman Company such as job loss and harassment, the BSCP forced the company to the bargaining table. On August 25, 1937, after 12 years of battle, the BSCP was recognized as the official union of the Pullman Porters.
Protected by the union, the job of a Pullman Porter was one of economic stability and held high social prestige in the African-American community. A. Philip Randolph utilized the power of the labor union and the unity that it represented to demand significant social changes for African-Americans nationally. The museum's exhibits tell the story of the power of unity, leadership, action, organization, and determination. This story is one of ordinary men who did extraordinary things. A. Philip Randolph and the members of the BSCP understood the power of collective work and community involvement. They improved the quality of life for themselves and made sure that their efforts improved the lives of those who were to follow. They worked together to fight many battles and they won many victories for African-American people. They demonstrated and personified the meaning of the word brotherhood. These African-American men were American heroes.
The Pullman Company took full advantage of racism. Porters were allowed very little rest while traveling across country. They often had to perform the conductor's job (at a much lower rate) in addition to their own work, thus facing the hostility of white workers.
The porters not only waged a long hard fight against the Pullman Company, they also had to struggle to gain admittance to the American Federation of Labor. As several black delegates emphasized at the 1919 and 1920 conventions, they had proven their loyality to this country by spilling more than their share of blood in many wars. Yet, they could not join or receive equal representation by joining the unions of the AFL. Many black workers instead formed their own independent unions or joined the interracial I.W.W. But even in the late 1920s and early 1930s AFL support was only lip service.
Redcap cartoon"The Modern 'Gulliver" from an article by Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters founder A. Philip Randolph in The Messenger, Harlem's magazine of socialist politics, 1926.
March on Washington 1941 • A. Philip Randolph first planned a March on Washington in 1941 to protest against governmental hiring practices that excluded African-Americans from federal employment and federal contracts. Randolph understood that this type of racial discrimination was the reason for the economic disparities between whites and blacks in this country. Randolph proposed that African-Americans march on Washington to demand jobs and freedom. Because of this, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802, which banned discrimination in the federal government and defense industries in June 1941.
A. Philip Randolph, President of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters issues his famous call for 50,000 people to join a July 1st march on Washington to protest against segregation, particularly in the armed forces and defense industries during the war. By June estimates of the number of people expecting to participate reached 100,000, forcing President Roosevelt to sign Executive Order 8802, banning discrimination by any defense contractors and establishing the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) to investigate charges of racial discrimination.
The papers of A. Philip Randolph document his protests against segregation, particularly in the armed forces and defense industries during the war. Randolph led a successful movement during World War II to end segregation in defense industries by threatening to bring thousands of blacks to protest in Washington, D. C., in 1941.
The threatened March on Washington in 1941 prompted President Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 8802, stating that there should be "no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or Government because of race, creed, color, or national origin." The Committee on Fair Employment Practices was established to handle discrimination complaints.
Even after the union won recognition, the Pullman Company continued to portray porters as eager to please and childish. This depiction is from 1943.
A. Philip Randolph and Grant Reynolds testifying 1948 against segregation in the military.
From coast to coast in my travels I shall call upon all Negro veterans to join this civil disobedience movement and to recruit their younger brothers in an organized refusal to register and be drafted. • Many veterans, bitter over Army Jim Crow, have indicated that they will act spontaneously in this fashion, regardless of any organized movement. “Never again,” they say with finality. • I shall appeal to the thousands of white youth in schools and colleges who are today vigorously shedding the prejudices of their parents and professors. I shall urge them to demonstrate their solidarity with Negro youth by ignoring the entire registration and induction machinery. • And finally I shall appeal to Negro parents to lend their moral support to their sons, to stand behind them as they march with heads high to Federal prisons as a telling demonstration to the world that Negroes have reached the limit of human endurance, that, in the words of the spiritual, we will be buried in our graves before we will be slaves. • Randolph explained that he had adopted this confrontational strategy as a desperate last resort because of the gross hypocrisy of the committee’s chairman and of his party, the Republican: • Your party, the party of Lincoln, solemnly pledged in its 1944 platform a full-fledged congressional investigation of injustices to Negro soldiers. Instead of that long overdue probe, the Senate Armed Services Committee on this very day is finally hearing testimony from two or three Negro veterans for a period of 20 minutes each. The House Armed Services Committee and Chairman [Walter C.] Andrews went one step further and arrogantly refused to hear any at all. • Since we cannot obtain an adequate Congressional forum for our grievances, we have no other recourse but to tell our story to the peoples of the world by organized direct action. I do not believe that even a wartime censorship wall could be high enough to conceal news of a civil disobedience program. • If we cannot win your support for your own party commitments, if we cannot ring a bell in you by appealing to human decency, we shall command your respect and the respect of the world by our united refusal to cooperate with tyrannical injustice. • Since the military with their southern biases, intend to take over America and institute total encampment of the populace along Jim Crow lines, Negroes will resist with the power of nonviolence, with the weapons of moral principles, with the good-will- weapons of the spirit; yes, with the weapons that brought freedom to India. • I feel morally obligated to disturb and keep disturbed the conscience of Jim Crow America.
A. Philip Randolph leads protest against a Jim Crow Army outside the Democratic National Committee.
March on Washington 1963 • As a result of the groundwork laid 22 years earlier for the 1941 March on Washington, A. Philip Randolph was prepared for the leadership role he held in the 1963 March on Washington. With Bayard Rustin as the main organizer of the march, Randolph was able to unite the many groups and leaders that comprised this national call for masses of people to take action.On August 28, 1963, 250,000 people attended this monumental march which set a precedent demonstrating the power of unity and action. After the march, Randolph, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Whitney Young, Roy Wilkins, John Lewis and others met with President Kennedy. Within a year, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed. Randolph's leadership influenced many leaders including Dr. King, and Malcolm X.
The idea for the 1963 March on Washington was envisioned by A. Philip Randolph, a long-time civil rights activist dedicated to improving the economic condition of black Americans. When Randolph first proposed the march in late 1962, he received little response from other civil rights leaders. He knew that cooperation would be difficult because each had his own agenda for the civil rights movement, and the leaders competed for funding and press coverage. Success of the March on Washington would depend on the involvement of the so-called Big SixRandolph and the heads of the five major civil rights organizations: Roy Wilkins of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); Whitney Young, Jr., of the National Urban League; Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC); James Farmer of the Conference of Racial Equality (CORE); and John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
The details and organization of the march were handled by Bayard Rustin, Randolphs trusted associate. Rustin was a veteran activist with extensive experience in putting together mass protest. With only two months to plan, Rustin established his headquarters in Harlem, NY, with a smaller office in Washington. He and his core staff of 200 volunteers quickly put together the largest peaceful demonstration in U.S. history.
Webliography • http://www.pbs.org/weta/apr/ • http://www.apri.org/ • http://www.aphiliprandolphmuseum.com/ • http://www.clarencemitchellpapers.com/Randolph.htm • http://www.umkc.edu/labor-ed/history12.htm • http://www.laborarts.org/exhibits/sampler/image.cfm?ID=18
