A Philip Randolph was born on April 15,1889 in Crescent City Florida. His parents were James William Randolph and Elizabeth Robinson Randolph. His Father was a minister and his mother was a seamstress. Philip Randolph also had an older brother, James.

             The family moved to Jacksonville in 1891. In East Jacksonville there was, at the time, the only African American high school named The Cook Institute. Hear Philip and James went to school. They both did very well. Philip did great in public speaking, literature and drama. In 1907 Philip graduated as valedictorian. Then in 1911 Philip moved to New York in hopes of becoming an actor. He gave this up, eventually, when he was not able to convince his parents that this was a worthwhile thing to do. He later married Lucille E. Green who was an entrepreneur that graduated from Howard University.

            Philip also joined the socialist party and began to preach their values by speaking on the crowded street corners of Harlem. In 1917 president of the Headwaiters and Sidewaiters Society of Greater New York, William White, asked Philip to be the editor for their magazine called The Hotel Messenger. Philip agreed to do this, and he changed the name of the magazine to The Messenger. He published the first issue in November of 1917. This immediately won recognition as being one of the best-edited magazines.

            In June 1925 Philip was asked by a group of Pullman porters to lead the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Philip agreed. For ten years Philip lead the organization, and they ended up getting the BSCP to become the certified bargaining agent for the Pullman Porters, in 1935. The BSCP also became the only black union to have an ALF charter.

            In December 1940 President Roosevelt refused to ban discrimination of African Americans in the defense industry. Upon this Philip organized a march on Washington D.C. This gained a lot of support from the African Amriecan community. On June 25, 1941 Roosevelt ordered there to be no discrimination of workers employed by the defense industries or government. He did this six days before the march was supposed to happen.

            Additionally after the Selective Service act of 1947 Philip founded the League for Nonviolent Civil Disobedience Against Military Segregation. This was done so that they could convince the Government to integrate the armed forces. In 1948 Harry Truman was facing re-election. He listened to the demand of his African American constituents. On July 26 Truman ordered to end all discrimination in the armed forces.

             In 1955 Philip became vice president of the ALF-CIO organization. Here, he used his position and influence to push for more civil rights with in the labor movement. He also went on to be one of the founders for the Negro American Labor Council. He was also its president from 1960 to 1966. For his accomplishments President Johnson awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. Philip eventually retired as president of the BSCP in 1968 and was named president of the A. Philip Randolph Institute. This was a newly formed organization that was set on promoting unionism with in the African American community. Philip Randolph died on May 16, 1979.

A Philip Randolph