The richest company in America sent him a blank check to betray black workers. He sent it back and then built an army of millions.
In 1925 Black Pullman porters worked 400 hours a month and lived on scraps. A. Phillip Randolph swore to change that. The Pullman company unleashed hell, firing 800 porters, hiring thugs to break bones and bribing preachers to condemn them.
When violence failed, they offered him a blank check to write up to 1 million dollars. He sent it back and kept organizing. For 12 brutal years, he built the first black labour union in America- 400,00 strong.
Then he aimed higher. He threatened to march 100,000 black workers on Washington unless FDR banned discrimination in defence jobs. FDR caved. Truman caved next -desegregating the entire US military. By 1963 he stood with MLK at the March on Washington, the march he’d first threatened 22 years earlier that finally came to life.
