Person · 1889–1979
A. Philip Randolph
The labor leader who built the first major Black union and first proposed a march on Washington — in 1941.
A bridge between labor and the [[civil-rights-movement]].
A. Philip Randolph organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first major Black labor union, and used the threat of a mass march to pressure President Roosevelt into desegregating the defense industry in 1941. Two decades later, he was the elder statesman behind the 1963 March on Washington.
He linked the Black freedom struggle to the labor movement throughout his life, insisting that civil rights and economic rights were inseparable.