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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, A. Philip Randolph was born Asa Philip Randolph
3on April 15, 1889 in Crescent City, Florida to parents who were
4staunch supporters of equal rights for African Americans and
5general human rights; in 1891, the Randolph family moved to
6Jacksonville, Florida, where A. Philip would live for most of
7his youth; he attended the Cookman Institute, one of the first
8institutions of higher education for blacks in the country; he
9was a member of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity; and
 
10    WHEREAS, In 1911, after graduating from Cookman, A. Philip
11Randolph moved to the Harlem neighborhood of New York City;
12during this time, he studied English literature and sociology
13at City College and juggled a variety of jobs, including work
14as an elevator operator, a porter, and a waiter, while
15developing his rhetorical skills simultaneously; in 1912, he
16made his first move into politics and co-founded an employment
17agency, the Brotherhood of Labor, as a way to organize Black
18workers; and
 
19    WHEREAS, In 1913, A. Philip Randolph married Howard
20University graduate and beauty shop entrepreneur Lucille
21Green; shortly thereafter, he organized a drama society in
22Harlem and performed in several productions; in 1917, he
23co-founded a political magazine, The Messenger, and began

 

 

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1publishing articles calling for the inclusion of more Blacks
2in the Armed Forces and war industry and demanding higher
3wages; he also tried to unionize African American shipyard
4workers in Virginia and elevator operators in New York City;
5and
 
6    WHEREAS, After World War I ended, A. Philip Randolph
7became a lecturer at the Rand School of Social Science; in the
8early 1920s, he unsuccessfully ran for office in New York
9State and became more convinced than ever that unions would be
10the best way for African Americans to improve their situation;
11and
 
12    WHEREAS, In 1925, A. Philip Randolph founded the
13Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) and served as its
14president; he sought to gain the union's official inclusion in
15the American Federation of Labor, the affiliates of which, at
16that time, frequently barred African Americans from
17membership; the BSCP met with resistance primarily from the
18Pullman Company, which was the largest employer of Blacks at
19that time; A. Philip persisted and won membership in the AFL in
201937, making the BSCP the first African American union in the
21United States; and
 
22    WHEREAS, During the 1940s, A. Philip Randolph twice used
23mass protests as a means of influencing the policies of the

 

 

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1federal government; he planned a march on Washington to
2protest discrimination in the war industry workforce but
3called off the march after President Franklin D. Roosevelt
4issued an executive order that banned racial discrimination at
5government defense factories and established the first Fair
6Employment Practices Committee; he also organized the League
7for Nonviolent Civil Disobedience Against Military
8Segregation, which eventually led President Harry S. Truman to
9issue a 1948 executive order banning racial segregation in the
10U.S. Armed Forces; and
 
11    WHEREAS, In 1955, A. Philip Randolph became a vice
12president of the newly merged entity AFL-CIO (Congress of
13Industrial Organizations); in 1957, he organized a prayer
14pilgrimage to Washington, D.C. to draw attention to the delay
15of school desegregation being implemented in the South; he
16also organized the Youth Marches for Integrated Schools and
17formed the Negro American Labor Council in 1959; and
 
18    WHEREAS, In 1963, A. Philip Randolph was a principal
19organizer of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom,
20during which he spoke to an integrated crowd of nearly 250,000
21supporters; he shared the podium with Martin Luther King Jr.,
22who delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech; A. Philip and
23Dr. King were among the handful of civil rights leaders to meet
24with President John F. Kennedy after the march; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, The following year, A. Philip Randolph was
2presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President
3Lyndon B. Johnson; soon after, he co-founded the A. Philip
4Randolph Institute, an organization aimed at studying the
5causes of poverty; and
 
6    WHEREAS, A. Philip Randolph resigned from his more than
740-year tenure as president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car
8Porters in 1968; he also retired from public life and spent the
9next few years writing his autobiography; he died in bed at his
10New York City home on May 16, 1979 at age 90; he was cremated,
11and his ashes were interred at the A. Philip Randolph
12Institute in Washington, D.C.; therefore, be it
 
13    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
14HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
15we recognize the life of A. Philip Randolph, American labor
16unionist and civil rights activist, and we honor his legacy.