On this day in Labor History the year was 1979.
That was the day that A Philip Randolph, perhaps the most significant African American figure in the US Labor Movement, passed away.
He was 90 years old.
During World War I, Randolph and Chandler Owen founded the monthly magazine The Messenger in Harlem.
From the pages of The Messenger Randolph called for an end to employment discrimination against black workers.
A few years later, Sleeping Car Porters, who worked on trains for the Pullman Car Company wanted to form a union.
They knew they faced an uphill battle, because the Pullman Company was notoriously anti-union.
They reached out Randolph, inviting him to lead their effort.
Since he did not work for the company, Randolph could not be fired for talking about the union.
He accepted the job. It took twelve long years of struggle, but in 1937, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters signed their first union contract.
They became the first national black union of the American Federation of Labor.
During World War II, Randolph organized a planned March on Washington, calling for an end to discrimination in defense industry employment.
He called off the march, when President Roosevelt conceded and issued Executive Order 8802, prohibiting the defense industry from engaging in acts discrimination.
In 1963, Randolph helped to plan another march on Washington.
This March he did not cancel. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom drew a quarter of a million Civil Rights supporters to the nation’s Capital.
That day Randolph shared the podium with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who delivered his famous I have a dream speech.
A Philip Randolph fought for more than a half a century for labor Rights, for Civil Rights and for dignity.
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Labor History in 2:00 brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and The Rick Smith Show