A. Philip Randolph received the Humanist of the Year award in 1970 for his tireless work to advance the rights of black Americans.

He was born in Florida in 1889, later moving to New York City where he attended City College of New York. Socialist Eugene V. Debs influenced Mr. Randolph's political views and in 1917 he began a radical black journal, the Messenger. He urged blacks to join labor unions, promoted solidarity between black and white laborers, and concerned himself with inner-city blacks. He organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (AFL) in 1925 and was its president. During the 30's he was president of the National Negro Congress and in 1957 a vice president of the AFL-CIO.

In 1941, when defense plants refused to hire blacks, Mr. Randolph planned a protest march on Washington. The march was forestalled when President Roosevelt issued a fair employment practices Executive Order. In 1947 he pressed for the end of segregation in the armed forces. In 1948 President Truman signed an Executive Order prohibiting such segregation. In 1963 Mr. Randolph directed the huge March for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, D.C. He died May 16, 1979, in New York City at the age of 90.

--Mildred McCallister
The Humanist of the Year Book 1953-1991