Sunday, September 3, 2017

OUR LABOR DAY HERO: A. PHILIP RANOLPH

Mr. A.PHILIP RANOLPH of Jacksonville, Florida, the son of an A.M.E. preacher and of a school-teacher mother, who graduated from Bethune-Cookman College, in Daytona Beach, Florida, was directly responsible for the issuance of two Presidential Executive Orders (E.O.) in the 1940s that greatly improved wages and working conditions for black people. The first EO was signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1941 Executive Order 8802 creating the Fair Employment Practices Committee and barring discrimination in defense industries and federal bureaus). The second E.O. was signed by President Harry S. Truman (integrate the military, which was achieved through Executive Order 9981 in 1948.) It is well to remember these and the other great works for our people of Mr. Randolph, this Labor Day weekend in 2017. He also spoke at the March on Washington in August 1963, and he organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (Pullman Porters) in Chicago, Illinois in 1925. https://goodblacknews.org/2013/09/02/remembering-the-legacy-of-union-leader-a-phillip-randolph-on-labor-day/