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The rally is often remembered as the high-point of the Civil Rights Movement, and it did help keep the issue in the public consciousness. A. Philip Randolph Heads the 1963 March on Washington, delivered the opening and closing remarks, With thanks to A. Philip Randolph and Bostons African-American Railroad Workers. There was A. Philip Randolph, pushed unceremoniously into a corner by the loo, as if he were there to dispense towels, like Emil Jannings at the end of F. W. Murnaus The Last Laugh. Flyer from the 1941 March on Washington. People considered it radical because it opposed lynching, the military draft and segregation. In New York, Randolph became familiar with socialism and the ideologies espoused by the Industrial Workers of the World. With amendments to the Railway Labor Act in 1934, porters were granted rights under federal law. Photo courtesy National Archives. Search instead in Creative? On Oct. 8, 1988, retired Pullman car operators and dining car waiters attended the unveiling of the statue of A. Philip Randolph in Bostons Back Bay train station. Click here. Asa Philip Randolph (April 15, 1889 - May 16, 1979) was an American labor unionist and civil rights activist. In the early Civil Rights Movement and the Labor Movement, Randolph was a prominent voice. Website. He died May 16, 1979, in New York City at the age of 90. In 1947, Randolph, along with colleague Grant Reynolds, renewed efforts to end discrimination in the armed services, forming the Committee Against Jim Crow in Military Service, later renamed the League for Non-Violent Civil disobedience. Randolph organized more protest marches over the next few decades. Work, Economy and Organizations Commons. "If he had been born in another period, maybe of another color," said John Lewis, "he probably would have been president." Randolph established the nation's first black labor union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car . A week before the scheduled march, he issued Executive Order 8802, which banned discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or Government because of race, creed, color, or national origin.. Nonetheless, it was his efforts to make sure the employers offered better wages and better working conditions for the Afro-American employees. . you may Download the file to your hard drive. [2], Asa Philip Randolph was born April 15, 1889, in Crescent City, Florida,[3] the second son of James William Randolph, a tailor and minister[3] in an African Methodist Episcopal Church, and Elizabeth Robinson Randolph, a skilled seamstress. Randolph, by then in his mid-70s, served as the titular head of the march. A Philip Randolph Park 1096 A Philip Randolph . Asa Philip Randolph (April 15, 1889:- May 16, 1979) was an American labor unionist and civil rights activist. Corrections? Compiled by Shirley Madden, member of the Manistee Area Racial Justice & Diversity Initiative. Randolph directed the March on Washington movement to end employment . The son of a Methodist minister, Randolph moved to the Harlem district of New York City in 1911. 6: American Studies Commons, On October 8, 1988, a group of retired Pullman car porters and dining car waiters gathered in Boston's Back Bay Station for the unveiling of a larger-than-life statue of A. Philip Randolph. [14] Randolph's belief in the power of peaceful direct action was inspired partly by Mahatma Gandhi's success in using such tactics against British occupation in India. 2, A. Philip Randolph and Boston's African-American Railroad Worker, James R. Green, University of Massachusetts BostonFollow Full online access to this resource is only available at the Library of Congress. [7] Some activists, including Rustin,[16] felt betrayed because Roosevelt's order applied only to banning discrimination within war industries and not the armed forces. Birth City: Crescent City. In 1928, after failing to win mediation under the Watson-Parker Railway Labor Act, Randolph planned a strike. "Randolph; Asa Philip". A. Philip Randolph Square park in Central Harlem was renamed to honor A. Philip Randolph in 1964 by the City Council. On Aug. 28, 1963, 250,000 people, black and white, showed up in Washington, D.C. A statue of A. Philip Randolph was erected in his honor in the concourse of Union Station in Washington . [6], In 1917, Randolph and Chandler Owen founded The Messenger[7] with the help of the Socialist Party of America. In 1925, he organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters,. It is located on Jacksonville's east side, near. (3,821 5,960 pixels, file size: 8.32 MB, MIME type: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, A. Philip Randolph, Civil Rights Activist -- Statue in Union Station Washington (DC) 2016, https://flickr.com/photos/22711505@N05/29740057013, https://www.flickr.com/people/22711505@N05, https://www.flickr.com/photos/22711505@N05/29740057013/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:A._Philip_Randolph,_Civil_Rights_Activist_--_Statue_in_Union_Station_Washington_(DC)_2016_(29740057013).jpg&oldid=634327911, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Transferred from Flickr via #flickr2commons, Flash did not fire, compulsory flash suppression, TAMRON AF 18-270mm F3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD B008N. Not ideal, but still on the stations main passageway, and a lot better than beside a bathroom. Manistee Planning Commission OKs special use for proposed AG Nessel asks Court of Appeals to move Line 5 case back to state. Their pay was almost double what they could get on other trains, but still incredibly low wages. "[22] Partly as a result of the violent spectacle in Birmingham, which was becoming an international embarrassment, the Kennedy administration drafted civil rights legislation aimed at ending Jim Crow once and for all.[22]. Randolph, Owen, and The Messenger fully supported the SP . The sinking of the Indianapolis was the single biggest at-sea naval disaster in U.S. history (measured by loss of life). Federal mediators ignored the Brotherhoods complaints. Justice is never given; it is exacted.. of A. Philip Randolph Campus High School (New York City High School 540), located on the, The A. Philip Randolph Career and Technician Center in, PS 76 A. Philip Randolph in New York City is named in his honor. The Senior Constituency Group of the AFL-CIO. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. He used that position to attack segregation within the AFL-CIO. Home Retrieved February 27, 2013. Washington, D.C.: The statue of Abraham Lincoln, the President who freed the slaves, serves as a symbolic backdrop for civil rights leader A . Randolph led a 10-year drive to organize the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) and served as the organization's first president. "[4], Soon thereafter, however, the editorial staff of The Messenger became divided by three issues the growing rift between West Indian and African Americans, support for the Bolshevik revolution, and support for Marcus Garvey's Back-to-Africa movement. L.2021, c.400, s.1. Asa Philip Randolph was a labor organizer and one of the most influential political strategists of the twentieth century. In 1919, most West Indian radicals joined the new Communist Party, while African-American leftists Randolph included mostly supported the Socialist Party. The Department of Justice called The Messenger "the most able and the most dangerous of all the Negro publications." Asa Philip Randolph was a groundbreaking leader, organizer, and social activist who championed equitable labor rights for African American communities, becoming one of the most impactful civil rights and social justice leaders of the 20th century. > During World War I, he attempted to unionize African-American shipyard workers and elevator operators and co-launched a magazine designed to encourage demand for higher wages. In 1963, he was the planner, director and chairman of the March on Washington, D.C. for Jobs and Freedom. Asa Philip Randolph was an American labor leader who founded and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first organized African-American labor union. [12] Randolph maintained the Brotherhood's affiliation with the American Federation of Labor through the 1955 AFL-CIO merger.[13]. Working on the trains was what helped me educate my children, said Bennie Bullock of Mattapan in a 1980s interview. To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately, [23] He pioneered the use of prayer protests, which became a key tactic of the civil rights movement. Asa Philip Randolph (1889 - 1979) was a leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement, the American labor movement, and socialist political parties. Facebook Search Powered by Edlio. APRI was founded in 1965, and advocates for the agenda of the AFL-CIO at the state and federal level, using litigation and legislative pressure. George Walker of Marlboro, Mass., a porter, joined that first year, risking dismissal by the company. Inequality and Stratification Commons, He headed the March on Washington in 1963, where Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. A man who did more for the betterment of the living conditions of African Americans was A. Philip Randolph, full name Asa Philip Randolph. Robert C. Hayden, On October 8, 1988, a group of retired Pullman car porters and dining car waiters gathered in Boston's Back Bay Station for the unveiling of a larger-than-life statue of A. Philip Randolph. The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong. In 1917 he co-founded the Messenger, an African-American socialist journal that was critical of American involvement in World War I. Asa Philip Randolph was an American labor unionist and civil rights activist. Asa Philip Randolph[1] (April 15, 1889 May 16, 1979) was an American labor unionist and civil rights activist. In 1960 he helped organize the Negro American Labor Council and served as its president. When the AFL merged with the CIO in 1955, Randolph was made a vice president and member of the executive council of the combined organization. Claytor's efforts helped rescue more than 300 of the roughly 1200 men who'd been on board the Indianapolis. The following year, Randolph removed his union from the AFL in protest against its failure to fight discrimination in its ranks and took the brotherhood into the newly formed Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). Labor leader and social activist A. Philip Randolph was born on April 15, 1889 in Crescent City, Florida. Many years ago the AFL-CIO gave Union Station, the big Beaux Arts train station opposite the Capitol in Washington, D.C., a statue of A. Philip Randolph, the great labor . A. Philip Randolph receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Johnson. In 1925, as founding president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Randolph began organizing that group of Black workers and, at a time when half the affiliates of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) barred Blacks from membership, took his union into the AFL. > Born in the South at the start of the Jim Crow era, Randolph was by his thirtieth birthday a prime mover in the movement to expand civil . He lied about his experience, and then he messed up one of his orders. This park is named in honor of A. Philip Randolph who grew up in Jacksonville and later became an influential figure in both the Civil Rights Movement and the American labor movement. [5] Asa excelled in literature, drama, and public speaking; he also starred on the school's baseball team, sang solos with the school choir, and was valedictorian of the 1907 graduating class. Thomas R. Brooks and A.H. Raskin, "A. Philip Randolph, 18891979". Facebook Search Powered by Edlio. According to Franklin, the statue really was moved several years ago to Starbucks. Randolph was born and raised in Florida. Randolph's importance as a militant leader is highlighted by a quote inscribed on the base of the statue which reads, in part: "Freedom is never granted; it is won. He then returned to the question of Black employment in the federal government and in industries with federal contracts. Then came the Great Depression, and membership fell to 658 in 1933. A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum is in Chicago near the Pullman Historic District. Randolph For A. Philip Randolph, labor and civil rights were one and the same. A. Philip Randolph Boulevard in Jacksonville, Florida, formerly named Florida Avenue, was renamed in 1995 in A. Philip Randolph's honor. In every truth, the beneficiaries of a system cannot be expected to destroy it. A. Philip Randolph (right), National Treasurer for the Committee Against Jim Crow in Military Service and Training, and Grant Reynolds, New York State Commissioner of Correction testify before the Senate Armed Services committee calling for safeguards against racial discrimination in draft legislation. . Although he was able to attain a good education in his community at Cookman Institute, he did not see a future for himself in the discriminatory Jim Crow era south, and moved to New York City just before the Great Migration. He earned $67 a month for 400 hours. A. Philip Randolph, Civil Rights Activist -- Statue in Union Station Washington (DC) 2016 . Although King and Bevel rightly deserve great credit for these legislative victories, the importance of Randolph's contributions to the Civil Rights Movement is large. In 1937, the Pullman Company signed a major labor contract with the Brotherhood. He was a member of the Socialist Party and helped found the magazine The Messenger in 1917 to promote socialist ideas in the African-American community and give a progressive voice to the . A statue of A. Philip Randolph was erected in his honor in the concourse of Union Station in Washington, D.C.. In 1925, he organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first successful African-American led labor union. Per Wikipedia: "A statue of A. Philip Randolph was erected in his honor in the concourse of Union Station in Washington (DC). Picketers walking outside of the Democratic National Convention are demanding equal rights for Blacks and anti-Jim Crow plank in the party platform. Lets see if they ever erect a statue to honor you. Trotter Review Volume 6 Issue 2Race and Politics in America: A Special Issue Article 7 9-21-1992 A. Philip Randolph and Boston's African-American Railroad Worker A. Philip Randolph. A proper statue of Randolph already occupies Union Station in Washington, D.C., and a somewhat grander statue occupies the Back Bay rail station in Boston, and really there ought to be statues of . [4][10], Under Randolph's direction, the BSCP managed to enroll 51 percent of porters within a year, to which Pullman responded with violence and firings. Pioneering leader A. Philip Randolph, whose contributions were critical to the civil rights and labor movements, should be memorialized in the nation's capital with a monument celebrating his legacy. In an echo of his activities of 1941, Randolph was a director of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which brought more than 200,000 persons to the capital on August 28, 1963, to demonstrate support for civil rights for Blacks. A Pullman porter, Chicago, 1943. File:A. Philip Randolph, Civil Rights Activist -- Statue in Union Station Washington (DC) 2016 (29740057013).jpg. NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window. American Federation Of Labor - Congress Of Industrial Organizations. And the movement continued to gain momentum. Subsequently, thirty-two retirees were interviewed. After decades of leading the civil rights movement, Randolph died in his apartment on May 16, 1979. He moved to Harlem, New York. Randolph was both a great labor leader and a great civil rights leader, not coincidental when you consider racial justice means nothing without economic justice. Files are available under licenses specified on their description page. Because of better pay, many Black families were able to send their children to college. Randolph led an energetic Harlem effort for Morris Hillquit 's Socialist campaign for mayor of New York in 1917. Race and Ethnicity Commons, Asa Phillip Randolph was born in Crescent City, Florida, the second son of the Rev. You're all set! A Day Like No Other, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. It coordinated a national legislative campaign on behalf of every major civil rights law since 1957. He worked for decades for equality for African Americans in labor unions and the U.S. military. Create a scavenger hunt using this waymark as the center point. A. Philip Randolph worked for peace, justice for all, African Americans have rich history with National Park Service, Newsletters: Get local news delivered directly to you. Thats funny, I thought. . Unless this war sound the death knell to the old Anglo-American empire systems, the hapless story of which is one of exploitation for the profit and power of a monopoly-capitalist economy, it will have been fought in vain, he said. A. Philip Randolph, U.S. civil rights leader, 1963 Photo: Public Domain Introduction: A. Philip Randolph ( brought the gospel of trade unionism to millions of African American households. This page was last edited on 3 March 2022, at 07:10. 2, Article 7. Nothing counts but pressure, pressure, more pressure, and still more pressure through broad organized aggressive mass action. CENTERS Randolph is credited with pushing President Franklin Roosevelt to ban discrimination in the defense industry and President Harry Truman to integrate the military. For several years prior to his death, he had a heart condition and high blood pressure. Some of the highlights of his life work are as follows: Many believe that A. Philip Randolph was the founding father of our American Civil Rights movement. Statues: A statue of A. Philip Randolph was erected in his honor in the concourse of Union Station in Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King delivered his "I Have A Dream" speech as the last speaker. He founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925. The 1963 March on Washington was, after all, the March for Jobs and Freedom. He's sitting on the base of the A. Philip Randolph statue and charging his phone from a portable battery. Evening after evening, television brought into the living-rooms of America the violence, brutality, stupidity, and ugliness of {police commissioner} Eugene "Bull" Connor's effort to maintain racial segregation. At the unveiling ceremonies of the A. Philip Randolph statue on October 8, 1988, the MBTA paid tribute to forty-three retired Boston railroad workers and their families. Pressure, Revolution, Action. He organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first predominantly African American labor union. That cost the union half of its members. The Washington Post, which last year waxed sentimental about the relocation (to another part of the station) of a long-established mom-and-pop liquor store to make way for Pret-A-Manger, never weighed in on Randolphs insulting exile. To this end, he and Owen opened an employment office in Harlem to provide job training for southern migrants and encourage them to join trade unions. (I thought it was still by the Gents.) Randolph finally realized his vision for a March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, which attracted between 200,000 and 300,000 to the nation's capital. This act eventually gave rise to the Black middle class. [4] Nationwide, the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s used tactics pioneered by Randolph, such as encouraging African Americans to vote as a bloc, mass voter registration, and training activists for nonviolent direct action.[32]. Bullock echoed the experience of other Boston porters. On Jan. 25, 1941, Randolph began to organize a march on Washington to demand an end to segregation in defense industries. The son of a Methodist minister, Randolph moved to the Harlem district of New York City in 1911. Randolph remembered vividly the night his mother sat in the front room of their house with a loaded shotgun across her lap, while his father tucked a pistol under his coat and went off to prevent a mob from lynching a man at the local county jail. EDITOR'S NOTE: Throughout February, as part of Black History Month, the Manistee News Advocate and Manistee Area Racial Justice & Diversity Initiative will share some information about the lives of some of the African-American people and groups who have made an impact in American history and in our local community. The New Jersey Transit Corporation shall erect and maintain a statue in honor of A. Philip Randolph to be located at Newark Penn Station. TNR interns Meenakshi Krishnan and Lane Kisonak found the statue by Starbucks earlier this week when I dispatched them to Union Station to photograph it. He became an American labor unionist and civil rights activist. Organization Overview The A. Philip Randolph Institute is one of six AFL-CIO "constituency [] He organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first predominantly African American labor union. Calendar . In 1925, he organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, which was the first successful African American led labor union. Randolph inspired the 'Freedom Budget', sometimes called the 'Randolph Freedom Budget', which aimed to deal with the economic problems facing the black community, it was published by the Randolph Institute in January 1967 as 'A Freedom Budget for All Americans'. Franklin D. Roosevelt that he would lead thousands of Blacks in a protest march on Washington, D.C.; Roosevelt, on June 25, 1941, issued Executive Order 8802, barring discrimination in defense industries and federal bureaus and creating the Fair Employment Practices Committee. Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. Randolph inspired the "Freedom Budget", sometimes called the "Randolph Freedom budget", which aimed to deal with the economic problems facing the black community, it was published by the Randolph Institute in January 1967 as "A Freedom Budget for All Americans". Asa Philip Randolph (1889 - 1979) was a leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement, the American labor movement, and socialist political parties. Description. He was born to Reverend James Williams Randolph who instilled in him the reality . Agency Responsible for Placement (if not in list above): Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. In 1941, he, Bayard Rustin, and A. J. Muste proposed a march on Washington[7] to protest racial discrimination in war industries, an end to segregation, access to defense employment, the proposal of an anti-lynching law and of the desegregation of the American Armed forces. The group then successfully maintained pressure, so that President Harry S. Truman proposed a new Civil Rights Act and issued Executive Orders 9980 and 9981 in 1948, promoting fair employment, anti-discrimination policies in federal government hiring, and ending racial segregation in the armed services. Krishnan and Kisonak got a different story from a Union Station policeman, one Sgt. It was inspirational to see Randolph loom above the mostly white faces of Union Stations northeast corridor commuterslobbyists, lawyers, politicians, journalists. Considered the most important black leader in the 1930s and 1940s, he helped bring thousands of railroad sleeping car porters into the middle class. From his father, Randolph learned that color was less important than a person's character and conduct. A. Philip Randolph was a labor leader and civil rights activist who founded the nation's first major Black labor union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) in 1925. Born in Florida in 1889, Asa Phillip Randolph grew up the son of a minister in the Black community of Jacksonville. . Eventually, it seems, somebody wised up and moved Randolph back onto the Claytor Concourse, only further down, between a Starbucks and a stationery store. Randolph and Rustin also formed an important alliance with Martin Luther King Jr. The A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI) is a 501(c)(3) "constituency group" of the AFL-CIO for African-American union members. A. Philip Randolph statue in Boston Back Bays train station. Boston's African-American Railroad Workers - Back Bay Station - Boston, MA - Massachusetts Historical Markers on Waymarking.com. ". American National Biography Online, February 2000. In 1957, when schools in the south resisted school integration following Brown v. Board of Education, Randolph organized the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom with Martin Luther King Jr. "A statue of A. Philip Randolph was erected in his honor in the concourse of Union Station in Washington (DC). A. Philip Randolph - Quotes, Facts, and March on Washington D.C. Born on April 15, 1889, Asa Philip Randolph was an American labor leader, social activist, and socialist legislator. (for Asa) Philip Randolph (1889 - 1979) was established by 1963 as the century's preeminent force on black labor and the dean of American . Along with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the NALC initiated the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. A. Philip Randolph Heritage Park in Jacksonville, Florida. The movement sought to end employment discrimination in the defense industry and launched a nationwide civil . In the 1867, shortly after the end of the Civil War, George Pullman, via the Pullman Company designed sleeping car train travel in American for the white middle and upper class, by offering luxury sleeper cars and high-end service from Pullman porters. Another statue of Randolph, pictured below, is in the Boston Back . He had no known living relatives, as his wife Lucille had died in 1963, before the March on Washington. Asa Philip Randolph was born on April 15, 1889 in Crescent City, Florida, to a Methodist Minister, James Randolph. Randolph has wandered through the stations marble corridors far too long. Birth date: April 15, 1889. By 1937, the union negotiated its first contract with the Pullman Company. [23] Though he is sometimes identified as an atheist,[4] particularly by his detractors,[23] Randolph identified with the African Methodist Episcopal Church he was raised in. 6 (1992) This is a carousel. In 1920, the Socialist Party nominated Randolph for State Comptroller and he polled 202,361 votes-only 1,000 less than Eugene Debs, the Socialist Presidential candidate. Reading W. E. B. > This was the first successful Black trade union, which he took into the American Federation of Labor (AFL) despite the discriminatory practices there. [7] This was the first serious effort to form a labor institution for employees of the Pullman Company, which was a major employer of African Americans. Updates? This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. 1. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. In 1925, he organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first successful African-American led labor union. Who have you helped lately? Alan Derickson, "'Asleep and Awake at the Same Time': Sleep Denial among Pullman Porters", Last edited on 19 February 2023, at 01:15, National Brotherhood of Workers of America, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, A. Philip Randolph Academies of Technology. A. Philip Randolph Campus High School 443 W. 135 St., New York, NY 10031 Phone: (212) 690-6800 Fax: (212) 690-6805 . TROTTER_INSTITUTE Employees gained $2,000,000 in pay increases, a shorter workweek, and overtime pay. Asa Philip Randolph (1889 1979) was a leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement, the American labor movement, and socialist political parties. Randolph, March on Washington director, and other civil rights leaders addressed the demonstrators on Aug. 28, 1963. Suffering chronic illness, he resigned his presidency of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1968 and retired from public life. On February 3, 1989, the United States Postal Service issued a 25 cent postage stamp in his honor. Home | A. Philip Randolph Union Station statue 03.jpg. Winning Freedom and Exacting Justice: A. Philip Randolph's Use of Proverbs and Proverbial Language. Jump to navigation Jump to search. Timothy Noah is a New Republic staff writer and author of The Great Divergence: Americas Growing Inequality Crisis and What We Can Do About It. Photo, Print, Drawing [A. Philip Randolph, head-and-shoulders portrait, standing before the statue at the Lincoln Memorial, during 1963 March on Washington] [ b&w film copy neg. ] Vol. A. Philip Randolph delivered the opening and closing remarks, calling the marchers "the advanced guard of a massive, moral revolution for jobs and freedom.". In 1963, Randolph was the head of the March on Washington, which was organized by Bayard Rustin, at which Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have A Dream" speech. The statue of Abraham Lincoln, the president who freed the slaves, serves as a symbolic backdrop for civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph at the Lincoln Memorial. Frustrated by the lack of job opportunities for African Americans in defense industries and by racial segregation in the military, labor leader and civil rights advocate A. Philip Randolph wrote to New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia asking for his support.