APR Union Poster
1 2018-04-08T02:34:09-07:00 Maureen Gray ab288c53aefb942d3e6102c32f4d6e3a10268d3b 19701 1 plain 2018-04-08T02:34:09-07:00 Maureen Gray ab288c53aefb942d3e6102c32f4d6e3a10268d3bThis page is referenced by:
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2018-03-14T17:50:30-07:00
A New Leader
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A. Phillip Randolph leads the largest black union in the United States
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2018-06-17T22:08:53-07:00
Though the NAACP was diligently working for the reinstitution of civil rights for African Americans, the The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, a black labor union headed by A. Phillip Randolph, took a more direct means of assistance for African Americans.
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.
