Press Release, Statement in Defense of A. Philip Randolph
Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr.
Date: October 13, 1961
Location: Atlanta, Ga.?
Genre: Press Release
Topic: Labor Movement
Martin Luther King, Jr. - Political and Social Views
Details
At the AFL-CIO’s quarterly meeting in October 1961, A. Philip Randolph, vice president of the federation of unions, was censured after recommending that the organization require all affiliated national and international unions to desegregate and integrate.1 In the press release below, King defends the beleaguered union leader, whom he says epitomizes “faultless dedication, integrity and honor” and is “second to none, not only in our nation but in the world.”2 King implores the AFL-CIO to lift the rebuke and refocus its efforts so the “struggle for justice” can continue “with all honorable forces united.”
For more than a quarter of a century, A. Philip Randolph has been a labor leader of faultless dedication, integrity and honor.
The leadership of the AFL-CIO has repeatedly held him forth as a sterling example of a labor statesman, second to none, not only in our nation but in the world. It is therefore, shocking and deplorable that a report replete with inaccuracies and groundless insults should have been adopted by the Executive Council of the AFL-CIO.
As a friend of organized labor, I hope that sober second thoughts will cause it to re-examine its actions and formally withdraw the report, replacing it with constructive proposals to deal with a grave evil which disfigures the image of our nation everywhere in the turbulent world of today.
A. Philip Randolph has been attacked because he is speaking bluntly and powerfully on behalf of millions of Negro workers. The truth that discrimination is not being with either vigor or determination can no longer be concealed or obscured.3 The electrifying progress being made by peoples of Africa and Asia serve to highlight the sluggish pace of change in our own nation. Tokenism and words of good will cannot answer the needs nor raise the dignity of people abused and deprived for generations.
A. Philip Randolph is the conscience of the labor movement. It would be as tragic for some leaders of labor to attempt to surpress this conscience as it is when an individual seeks to silence the inner spiritual warning that his deeds fall short of his obligations. The Negro people have always looked upon organized labor as one of the leaders in the struggle for Civil Rights.
I urge them to keep that faith because I deeply feel this unsound policy will be reversed and the struggle for justice will be resumed with all honorable forces united.
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1. In May 1960 Randolph and other African American leaders formed the Negro American Labor Council (NALC) to address discrimination and segregation in unions. King addressed the council at its founding conference (NALC, Announcement, “Founding convention call,” 27 May–29 May 1960). The following February, the NALC, under Randolph’s leadership, issued fifteen recommendations to top officials of the AFL-CIO. Besides the request to end segregation in unions, the NALC also demanded the election of black trade unionists to policy-making posts and the hiring of qualified black staff in all departments at the AFL-CIO’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. (NALC, Press release, Institute and workshop mark launch of drive against job discrimination, 17 February–18 February 1961). The censure was part of a twenty-page report that disputed Randolph’s claims and accused the civil rights leader of racial discrimination, claiming that the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters only employed nonwhites (Jacob S. Potofsky, George M. Harrison, and Richard F. Walsh, “Report to the Executive Council of the AFL-CIO,” 12 October 1961). All members of the AFL-CIO’s executive council, with the exception of Randolph, voted to impose the censure (AFL-CIO, Press release, “Council rejects Randolph’s charges, backs AFL-CIO rights record,” 13 October 1961). Announcing the AFL-CIO’s actions against Randolph at its October meeting, Meany said: “We can only get moving on civil rights if he comes over to our side and stops throwing bricks at us.” He continued: “I think we could do a lot with his cooperation. But it seems in the last two or three years he’s gotten close to these militant groups and he’s given up cooperation for propaganda” (Stanley Levey, “A.F.L.-C.I.O. Chiefs Score Randolph,” New York Times, 13 October 1961).
2. Later in the year, King defended Randolph again at the AFL-CIO’s Constitutional Convention (see King, Address Delivered at the Fourth Constitutional Convention of the AFL-CIO, 11 December 1961, p. 338 in this volume).
3. Randolph and Meany had also clashed about racial bias in unions in September 1959, at the AFL-CIO’s third biennial convention. There Randolph announced that he would press for the expulsion of two unions that failed to integrate and for the elimination of segregated locals in all AFL-CIO-affiliated unions. Angered by Randolph’s criticisms of the AFL-CIO’s anti-discrimination measures, Meany asked Randolph: “Who the hell appointed you as the guardian of all the Negroes in America?” (A. H. Raskin, “Meany, in a Fiery Debate, Denounces Negro Unionist,” New York Times, 24 September 1959).
Source: RRP-NN-Sc, Richard Parrish Papers (Additions), 1959–1976, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, New York, N.Y.