Mosley, John W
Description
This photograph features Asa Philip Randolph, former President of the International Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, pioneer labor leader and organizer of the March on Washington, at the Pyramid Club. A 1911 graduate of the Cookman Institute, Randolph founded the Brotherhood of Labor with the intentions of organizing Black workers and "The Messenger", a newsletter intended for influencing employers to hire Black workers at proper labor conditions and terms. In the 1920s on the Socialist Party platform he ran for political office in New York. In 1936 he was drafted as President of the National Negro Congress (NNC). He founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) in 1925 and by 1937 won the members of his union official inclusion in the American Federation of Labor (AFL). However, a year later, BSCP withdrew its membership in the AFL due to discriminatory practices within the organization. In 1941 Randolph’s threat of leading a protest march on Washington forced President Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 8802 which barred discrimination in defense industries and federal bureaus and created the Fair Employment Practices Committee. Randolph’s founding the League for Nonviolent Civil Disobedience against Military Segregation (LNCDMS) forced President Harry S. Truman to issue his 1948 executive order banning racial segregation in the United States Armed Forces. In 1963 he was an organizer and speaker at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Photographs
