A New Leader
After a few missteps in the 1920’s, the union defeated its opponent, the Pullman Railcar Union, in 1935, thus winning access to the Railway Labor Act. Porters received a substantial wage increase and improved work schedule. The labor union's success was due to black solidarity rather than integration with whites, so the black community turned to a union leader instead of Walter White. Since unionization and communism in America seemed to march to the same drummer, A. Philip Randolph's success made him the obvious choice as president of the Communist-backed National Negro Congress (NNC). Randolph’s primary focus in pre-WWII America was for African Americans to share in the economic boom of munitions factories as war drew near, however, more than half the factories awarded government contracts in the early 40s declared they would hire whites only. Those that did hire blacks relegated black workers to mop and broom work. Even worse, as the economy rebounded from the Great Depression, New Deal Programs that had benefited African Americans were drawing to a close.Though the union represented only a small percentage of African Americans, its persistence pushed A. Philip Randolph into the national spotlight as a black leader.
