August 1925

A. Philip Randolph organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925, leading a decade-long battle against the Pullman Company that ended in the first collective bargaining agreement between a Black union and a major American corporation in 1937. The union built economic power and organizational infrastructure that directly fueled the civil rights movement, and Randolph became one of the most influential labor and civil rights leaders of the 20th century.

A. Philip Randolph organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first predominantly Black labor union chartered by the American Federation of Labor. The union's 1937 contract victory over the Pullman Company was a landmark in Black labor rights and gave Randolph the organizational base that shaped civil rights strategy for decades.