A. Philip Randolph

A Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress

Prepared by Wilhelmina B. Curry
Revised by Brian McGuire

Manuscript Division
Library of Congress

Washington, D.C.

2003

Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html

Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 2005

Finding aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms005004

Table of Contents

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

Names:

Subjects:

Occupations:

Administrative Information

Provenance:

Processing History:

Transfers:

Copyright Status:

Preferred Citation:

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

Related Material:

Organization of the Papers

Description of Series

Container List

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by genres and listed alphabetically therein.

Administrative Information

The papers of Asa Philip Randolph, labor union and civil rights leader, were acquired by the Library of Congress in three installments. The first group of papers came to the Library in 1983 as a bequest from A. Philip Randolph via the A. Philip Randolph Educational Fund, the second as a gift of from the A. Philip Randolph Educational Fund, also in 1983, and the third was purchased in 1984.

The papers of A. Philip Randolph were processed in 1985. The collection was rehoused and the finding aid revised in 2003.

Photographs have been transferred to the Library's Prints and Photographs Division where they are identified as part of these papers.

The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of A. Philip Randolph is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, A. Philip Randolph Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

The papers of Asa Philip Randolph (1889-1979) span the years 1909-1979, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1941-1968. The collection comprises the following series: Family Correspondence of Lucille Randolph with her husband and documents relating to her death; General Correspondence; a Subject File which includes correspondence, memoranda, minutes of meetings, reports, and other documents relating to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC), and the March on Washington Movement; a Speeches and Writings File; a Biographical File; and Miscellany including address books, appointment books, awards, press releases, printed matter, scrapbooks, travel documents, and other material.

Although there is little material relating to Randolph's career before 1941, the collection highlights his life's work of more than sixty years as an African-American union leader and civil rights advocate. The papers reflect Randolph's dedication to securing political, social, and economic rights for the Negro and illustrate the means he favored to accomplish these goals. The General Correspondence, Subject File, and Speeches and Writings File document Randolph's strategy for obtaining his goals. Numerous letters, speeches, and articles reveal his concept of mass protests and passive resistance without violence emulating the tactics of Mohandas K. Gandhi in the struggle for India's independence from Great Britain. Before implementing his strategy of mass protests and passive resistance by means of picketing and the March on Washington Movement, Randolph sought the advice of friends, African-American leaders, educators, and organizations concerning his strategy for obtaining political, social, and economic freedom for the Negro. When some of the leadership, including that of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, withheld support, Randolph became convinced that he needed to reach the Negro masses.

Randolph was successful in implementing the tactics of a massive march. On June 25, 1941, Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802 which provided for the first Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC). Further pressure led Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 9346 on May 27, 1943, establishing a new FEPC, whose jurisdiction included all employment by government contractors and whose authority was expected to encompass discrimination in labor union membership as well as discrimination in employment. The papers document the FEPC until it expired in 1946. The papers also show the NAACP's eventual support for Randolph by donating funds and, in later years, through other methods of cooperation.

Documents relating to the aftermath of a White House meeting, March 22, 1948, between President Harry S. Truman and Randolph and other African-American leaders reveal that Randolph and Grant Reynolds threatened civil disobedience if Negroes were forced to register for a compulsory military draft, and on March 31, 1948, Randolph and Reynolds initiated a civil disobedience campaign against military discrimination. Truman issued Executive Orders 9980 and 9981 on July 26, 1948, creating a Fair Employment Board to combat racial discrimination in Federal employment and a President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services. The civil disobedience threat was called off. During the Korean War, Truman issued Executive Order 10210 forbidding discrimination by government contractors and Executive Order 10308 creating the President's Committee on Government Contract Compliance. Executive orders during the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower include the issuance on August 13, 1953, of Executive Order 10479 reconstituting the Contract Compliance Agency and placing it under the chairmanship of the vice president, and the issuance on January 18, 1955, of Executive Order 10590 establishing the President's Committee on Government Policy to enforce a nondiscrimination policy in federal employment.

The Subject File also includes information on the Negro labor movement. Financial and legal papers, correspondence, and other material, 1925-1978, relate to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters founded by Randolph and others in 1925. The Messenger, a magazine founded and edited by Randolph and Chandler Owen in 1917 was converted into the Black Worker, which became the official organ of the brotherhood. Also in the Subject File are papers documenting the Pullman Company's refusal to recognize the union as a bargaining agent for the porters and maids of the railroad companies. Subsequently, Randolph, as president of the union, petitioned the National Mediation Board, the Arbitration Board, and the Interstate Commerce Commission and won recognition for the union. In 1935, he succeeded in having the Pullman porters classified as railroad men, thereby entitling them to all associated benefits, and on August 25, 1937, the Pullman Company signed its first agreement with its porters, attendants, and maids.

The collection also relates to other topics that Randolph considered to be vital to African Americans, such as the relationship of the American Negro to Africa. In 1962, the American Negro Leadership Conference on Africa was formed with Randolph and Martin Luther King, Jr., as cochairmen. Its purpose was to coordinate relations between Negro Americans and the new Africa.. Other topics highlighted in this collection include the Prayer Pilgrimage held in Washington, D.C., May 17, 1957; the Youth March for Integrated Schools, October 25, 1958; the Negro American Labor Council, 1960-1968, founded by Randolph; National Educational Committee for a New Party, 1946-1947; the White House Conference "To Fulfill These Rights," 1965-1966; and the "Freedom Budget for All Americans," 1966-1967, a ten-year program conceived by Randolph as a means of abolishing poverty in the United States. Some documents indicate that Randolph in later life believed that the time was over for mass marches and demonstrations such as the one he had proposed in 1941 and the one he had organized and led in 1963 for freedom and jobs. As a result of his successes with the labor unions and with presidents from Roosevelt to Johnson, he was convinced that quiet negotiations and consultations should be sufficient.

Correspondents include Hazel Alves, Theodore E. Brown, Charles Wesley Burton, Roberta Church, Thurman L. Dodson, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lester B. Granger, William Green, Anna Arnold Hedgeman, Anna Rosenberg Hoffman, Hubert H. Humphrey, Maida Springer Kemp, Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King., Jr., Rayford Whittingham Logan, Emanuel Muravchik, Philip Murray, Chandler Owen, Cleveland H. Reeves, Walter Reuther, Grant Reynolds, Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Norman Thomas, Harry S. Truman, Wyatt Tee Walker, Walter Francis White, Roy Wilkins, and Aubrey Willis Williams.

Related Material:

Other material relating to A. Philip Randolph is in the Manuscript Division's collection of the records of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

Organization of the Papers

The collection is arranged in seven series:

• Family Papers, 1942-1963, n.d.
• General Correspondence, 1926-1978, n.d.
• Subject File, 1909-1978, n.d.
• Speeches and Writings File, 1917-1978, n.d.
• Biographical File, 1945-1979, n.d.
• Miscellany, 1920-1979, n.d.
• Oversize, 1920-1946

Description of Series

Container List