Rita Lerant Schwerner

 

           Philip A. Randolph was a Labor organizer and civil rights leader who was born in Crescent City Florida in 1889. He was the founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), which was a group of black porters who worked on the railroads. Randolph was the main organizer of the March on Washington. He went to Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Florida but he was still not able to get a job because he was black. Instead of being discouraged, he became a train porter. This is how he created the organization. In 1925, he organized the co-workers into the Brother-hood of sleeping Car Porters and obtanal a charter from the group from the American Federation of Labor.

          The reason why he planned the march on Washington in 1941 was to demand more jobs for blacks in the defense industries. This worked because it caught the attention of President Roosevelt, which he issued an executive order declaring there should be no discrimination the employment of workers in the defense industries. He helped pass many more laws to help blacks. He also organized the 1963 March on Washington. He helped organize it to demand Job and Freedom. So many people attended the march. He died in 1979 at the age of 90.

 

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