A. Philip Randolph

Asa Philip Randolph spent twelve years fighting the Pullman Company before winning recognition for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1937 — the first major labor victory for Black workers in American history. But that was only the beginning. Randolph would go on to pressure Franklin Roosevelt into desegregating the defense industry, push Harry Truman to desegregate the military, and organize the 1963 March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his most famous speech.

Born in Crescent City, Florida, in 1889, Randolph moved to Harlem as a young man and became a leading voice for labor rights and socialism. He understood that racial justice and economic justice were inseparable — that Black workers would never be free until they had the power to bargain collectively for fair wages and dignified working conditions.

Randolph's 1941 threat to march 100,000 Black workers on Washington forced President Roosevelt to sign Executive Order 8802, banning discrimination in defense industries. His 1948 campaign against military segregation led Truman to sign Executive Order 9981. The 1963 March on Washington was his crowning achievement — a vision he had first proposed two decades earlier.