5. Philip, Paul and Hector
A. Philip Randolph
Asa Philip Randolph was born in Crescent City, Florida, on April 15, 1889, to Rev. James William Randolph and Elizabeth Robinson Randolph. Philip’s father was a tailor as well as a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, while his mother was a seamstress. With James, their first-born, the family moved to nearby Jacksonville in 1891. There Philip grew up, mostly influenced by his mom and brother. Both sons graduated from Cookman Institute where Philip was outstanding in public speaking, drama and literature as well as a star on the baseball team. He sang solos in the school chorus and was valedictorian in 1907. Because of money concerns, James and Philip found jobs as road workers and messengers. In 1911, Philip moved to New York City, eventually becoming an actor and teacher of black history and economics. He also did some political debating.
In New York, he encountered two people who would play huge roles in his life. The first was a 31-year old widow, Lucille Green, who he met in early 1914 and married that summer. Chandler Owen was a student of sociology and political science at Columbia University as well a member of a group that would eventually become the National Urban League (NUL). In the months that followed, Randolph and Owen would become friends and eventually join the Socialist Party. When the First World War broke out, both strongly opposed it and spoke out against it, which lead to their arrests. More people should read what the Founding Fathers wrote.
In 1917, Chandler and Philip began the magazine, Messenger. One of those connected with the Headwaiters Union in New York asked them to edit their publication, which they did. It failed but the Messenger survived, as did Philip’s activism. His editorials against war, lynching, capitalism and racism brought J. Edgar Hoover and others to attention, with Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer labeling Randolph the most dangerous Negro in America. All their efforts failed to terminate the publication of the Messenger.
Randolph’s idea of fairness and justice, including speaking up, came from his father’s sermons. Owen and Randolph made the connection between the unions and African American laborers, since the American Federation of Labor was lacking in this regard. The two organized elevator operators in their city – a raise was certainly appropriate for these workers. Through their magazine, they also became involved with the National Brotherhood Workers of America and created two other organizations: the National Association for the Promotion of Trade Unionism Among Negroes and Friends of Negro Freedom. For Randolph, this activity would soon encompass unions on a greater scale.
In the nineteenth century, George Mortimer Pullman founded a town with his name near Chicago for his workers. Covering 4,000 acres – but probably no mules – laborers and their families resided there with stores, parks, a library, churches, a hotel and George’s factory nearby. He is well known for the Pullman sleeping car, which would transport people across the country in the maximum of comfort. Another name for it is the palace car, with the first one being complete just before the end of the Civil War. African Americans were hired to provide outstanding treatment to those in Pullman cars. There were three reasons for this choice: lower wages; social separation of the races; comfort and elegance provided to travelers. It was also felt that Negroes would be more assuring to those riding on trains and their indiscretions. The Pullman Company strongly believed in the master-servant relationship that had existed during slavery. If this feeling was one in which the master was concerned for the person who waited on him, that was fine. Once the lesser turned into a slave, society returned to the days before the Civil War ended.
Pullman, Illinois, came about in the early 1880s. By 1892, it was valued at over $5 million. Its creator died in October 1897. I didn’t mention a few practices in the town. The company had a few financial problems, so the wages of Pullman workers were decreased. They had longer hours but the costs of rent and goods in the company store weren’t reduced in price. Open discussions, speeches in public and independent newspapers were prohibited in the town. There were more restrictions besides these. Richard Ely of Harper’s Weekly wrote that Otto Van Bismarck’s power was utterly insignificant when compared with the ruling authority of the Pullman Palace Car Company in Pullman. Supposedly, some employee of the company said: We are born in a Pullman house, fed from the Pullman shops, taught in the Pullman school, catechized in the Pullman Church, and when we die we shall go to the Pullman Hell. Pullman is not listed on the Internet as a Robber Baron – at least not where I looked. I think he should be included. If you don’t agree, I should add that while George Pullman treated blacks as family – well, almost – none were invited to live in his village. Labor unions weren’t allowed. African Americans were porters but couldn’t hold jobs as conductors and very few worked in the repair shops.
By the start of World War I, 12,000 porters worked for the Pullman Company. Even before that, various collectives of porters of the company tried to organize a union, but the company stymied their efforts. Head organizer Ashley Totten asked A. Philip Randolph to speak in New York to the Porters Athletic Association. With his enthusiasm for the workingman, Randolph impressed Totten so much that he soon led the men. In the summer of 1925, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) was formed. Randolph had a good supporting staff but he wasn’t a porter, which would be significant later.
The Knights of Labor set out to assist Afro-American workers but craft unions ignored them. Other unions were on the scene, but they too discriminated. Some were only for whites, such as the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Black civil rights groups became involved, but due to other issues, such as voting rights, labor was left in the shadows. Through the years, the BSCP experienced huge membership growth, but many didn’t pay their dues. There were times when the numbers shrank, but may have picked up again later.
You might feel that any worker would welcome being a part of the union, but that wasn’t necessarily so. A few years ago, I was hired for a teaching job and before it commenced, the workers were summoned to a union meeting in the wee hours of the morning. There loomed the possibility of a strike. I had a huge dilemma. Management had just given me an opportunity, so shouldn’t I support them? On the other hand, I would soon be working with many of the attendees at the gathering and didn’t want to be considered a strikebreaker. That’s a scenario no one wants. Fortunately, the strike was avoided.
Porters faced a similar challenge, which is present today and has been for years. With a scarcity of jobs and having one at Pullman, even if the pay, hours and working conditions were lousy, becoming a member of BSCP could result in losing one’s job. What worker could take that chance? As the numbers indicate, quite a few did join the union, but the BSCP did as much as it could to hide the names of those involved from the Pullman Company. If another union came along, this would mean choosing one or the other. Another possibility was the Employee Representation Plan (ERP), but the company offered it. Don’t expect a health plan or personal days from it. ERP was the only union that Pullman would negotiate with.
Porters’ salaries were low and the hours long. The black palace car workers depended on tips, which might be good at times and minimal in other instances. In the early days, they weren’t paid at all and relied on gratuities to make a living. On occasion, porters were forced to do jobs that others should have done. There was no extra compensation for it. In the 1920s, the monthly wage for a porter was $67.50, for which they were expected to work 400 hours. Doing the math, that was over thirteen hours a day. Pay came out to less than seventeen cents an hour. Each calculation meant working 30 days a month. Slavery hadn’t ended.
As you can see, negotiating wages, hours and working conditions with the company was close to impossible. Besides that difficulty and membership concerns – not to mention various conflicts within BSCP – there were other challenges. The press may have written in favor of BSCP one month but then reversed itself days later. There were some newspapers that gave the union no praise at all. Besides the racism of Pullman, many whites weren’t enthusiastic about BSCP. Some African Americans felt that the porters should just be happy with their assignments and not join a union.
In 1925, one of the largest African American fraternities, the Improved and Benevolent Order of Elks of the World, didn’t help Randolph and BSCP at all by passing a resolution against organized labor. The suggested that blacks have faith that their employers would treat them justly. Yeah, that’ll happen. There was no reason to cause trouble since the goodwill of management would make things right. How soon people forget about life on the plantation.
Randolph used every resource available, including the National Mediation Board, government agencies and the NAACP. Because of the fluctuation in membership and other obstacles, the union had few options. The Garland Fund came to the aid of BSCP financially. A few characteristics of Randolph’s group couldn’t be denied: they exhibited extreme patience and dynamic exuberance; they weren’t quitters.
The spirit that President Roosevelt brought to the nation with the New Deal increased hope for BSCP. There were 658 in the union in 1933, but that increased to 2,627 by late 1934. The Railroad Labor Act (RLA) of 1934 faced a filibuster but two months later the bill was amended and it became law, making company unions and yellow dog contracts illegal. The latter meant workers couldn’t join a union. The Amended RLA meant that BSCP could negotiate with Pullman. Even with the law, the Pullman Company could have ignored it, just as they had continually done to BSCP, instead of negotiating. When they were asked to follow an order, they stalled and made excuses. In most cases they might do what they were supposed to do, except they would take their time. One result of RLA was that organizations soon saw that it was time to support the Brotherhood. One group that wanted to cash in on what BSCP was doing was the Order of Sleeping Car Conductors, who wanted jurisdiction over the porters. The Brotherhood would have none of that. In addition, the Pullman Company may not have had complete control, but another company-like union emerged, the Pullman Porters and Maids Protective Association (PPMPA). It seemed to be nothing more than ERP with a new name.
The struggle went on with delays by the company and numerous investigations by the National Mediation Board. Finally on July 1, 1935, the board notified the PPMPA, BSCP and Pullman that maids and porters of the company were now to be represented by the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. It had been going on for a decade and I was about to say that Pullman was finally reined in, but they may have had some more ideas. What I’m sure of is that porters, maids and BSCP leaders were dog tired – and they weren’t yellow.
The Brotherhood was jubilant and had every right to be. Pullman wasn’t defeated just yet, thinking that the Railroad Labor Act might be appealed, or at least some of it. On March 29, 1937, all of the law was upheld by the Supreme Court. The negotiations that Randolph and the others wanted with Pullman finally happened, but slowly. Did you expect anything else? Eventually, on August 25, 1937, Pullman signed and considered BSCP as union representatives. This was twelve years exactly after the Brotherhood was founded. The press just about ignored this monumental action. Black papers mentioned it a couple weeks later. Elmer Carter of Opportunity offered his praise to those who accomplished the agreement, saying Randolph was in the group of the top ten United States labor leaders and if one wanted to be absolutely impartial, among the top five.
BSCP referred to this achievement as the union and the movement. It was a huge moment for blacks and labor, leading to many other actions and movements. As a result, the National Urban League and NAACP placed more emphasis on economic issues for African Americans. Other unions became stronger. Amazingly, the RLA came about when BSCP was almost at its weakest time. Not enough praise can go out to these men and women. Sadly, slavery is still around in the 21st century.
Labor and civil rights leader, Randolph was the head of the March on Washington Movement in 1941, convincing President Franklin Roosevelt to ban discrimination in World War II defensive industries. The efforts of his group convinced President Harry Truman to terminate discrimination in military a few years after that. In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous speech in the nation’s capital and Randolph contributed as head of the event as well as giving his talk concerning black economic challenges. BSCP was the first major black union. Asa Philip Randolph died on May 16, 1979.
Randolph received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP in 1942. Other honors include the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964 and Humanist of the Year in 1970 from the American Humanist Association. He was a leader of the civil rights movement beginning in the 1930s and his non-violent philosophy was embraced in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and also in mass voter registration in the South. In the city where he grew up can be found A. Philip Randolph Academies of Technology, A. Philip Randolph Boulevard and an exhibit on his life at Edward Waters College. At City College in New York, you can find a high school named after him. Philadelphia and Detroit also honor him with schools. There’s a museum in Chicago with his name and statues honor him in Washington’s Union Station and Boston’s Back Bay.
In February 1989, the Post Office honored him with a 25-cent stamp. A. Philip Randolph was on scholar Molefi Asante’s list of the 100 Greatest African American. Andre Braugher played Randolph in the 2002 movie, 10,000 Black Men Named George, directed by Robert Townsend. That name, which ends the same way it starts, was how all the porters were addressed. You can read about Randolph and the struggles of the BSCP in the 1977 book by William H. Harris, Keeping The Faith: A Philip Randolph, Milton P. Webster, And The Brotherhood Of Sleeping Car Porters, 1925-37. It’s a relatively short book but has numerous footnotes, which seem to go on and on, not unlike the journey of Randolph, Webster and the BSCP.