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 African Americans 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 African Americans. 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 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 African Americans 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 African American 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 African Americans to Africa. In 1962, the American Negro Leadership Conference on Africa was formed with Randolph and Martin Luther King, Jr., as co-chairs. Its purpose was to coordinate relations between African Americans and 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.