Philip Randolph: Father Of The Civil Rights Movement

If you ask most people who led the 1963 March on Washington, they will probably tell you Martin Luther King Jr. However, the real force behind this event was a man many call the pre-eminent black labour leader of the century and the father of the modern civil rights movement; A. Philip Randolph. Randolph believed that economic rights was the key to advancing civil rights. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks are known as the parents of the civil rights movement. These civil rights activist could not have done it without A. Philip Randolph. I will be showcasing the various reasons that A. Philip Randolph was the most important leader of the American Civil Rights Movement.

Not everyone knows the name Asa Philip Randolph. The father of the civil rights movement in the United States. Randolph was also known at one time as the most

Civil Rights movement was the struggle of African American against the racism which engulfed the firmament of American society (Dierenfield, 2008). Randolph moved to New York in 1911, and after reading W.E.B DuBois’ The Souls of Black Folk decided to devote his life to fighting for African American equality. While taking classes at the City College of New York and New York University, Randolph met the black socialist Chandler Owen, who shared his commitment to progressive politics and black equality. By 1917, the two founded the socialist magazine The Messenger. Its editorials were against lynching and segregation. Its opposition to African American participation in World War I, and its advocacy of radical unionism were widely influential in black communities. They began publishing articles calling for the inclusion of more blacks in the armed forces and war industry, and demanding higher wages. At the same time Randolph began his career as a labour organizer working to create a union for elevator operators in New