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“Freedom is never granted; it is won.”
Most Americans have never heard of A. Philip Randolph, but he belongs in the pantheon of this country’s greatest civil rights and labor leaders.
As a champion of African American rights, Randolph rivaled Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and any president or other elected official.
It was Randolph— not MLK — who organized the 1963 March on Washington. General confusion on this point is quite understandable, given that King’s soaring “I Have a Dream” speech will likely forever define the event in popular historical memory.
However, Randolph had first conceptualized the March on Washington twenty years before, during World War II, to protest employment discrimination in defense industries. Franklin Roosevelt — eager to avoid domestic disruptions during the largest armed conflict in human history — issued an executive order directing defense contractors to institute racially equitable hiring practices. In return, Randolph agreed to call off the march.
In 1948, as the Cold War escalated, Randolph helped persuade Harry Truman to issue an executive order desegregating the armed forces.
As the Civil Rights Movement geared up in the ‘50s, Randolph forged fruitful alliances with the NAACP and MLK’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
In December 1961, Randolph dusted off his twenty-year-old idea for a March on Washington. This time, he hoped the demonstration would generate public pressure to force JFK and Congress to move on a major civil rights bill, and — more ambitiously — to expand economic opportunities for African Americans.
For 21 months, Randolph and his longtime associate Bayard Rustin planned the event, enlisting labor unions, religious organizations and civil rights groups. Four months before the march, Randolph endured a devastating personal loss : the death of his wife forty years into their marriage. He persevered despite his grief.
Finally, on August 28, 1963, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom brought roughly 250,000 demonstrators to the National Mall for a rousing day of speeches and song. Through radio and television, the event reached a wider audience.
