A. Philip Randolph’s March for Jobs

Long before the March on Washington became a feel‑good clip of “I Have a Dream,” A.

Philip Randolph wanted to shut the country down.Randolph, a Black socialist and head of the

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, spent decades organizing Black railroad workers against the powerful

Pullman Company, facing spies, firings, and violence. He understood something

simple but dangerous: civil rights without a paycheck is just a prettier cage.In 1941,

as defense plants boomed but locked Black workers out, he called for 10,000 Black Americans

to march on Washington to protest discrimination in war industries and the military. The threat was so

serious that President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802 to ban defense‑industry discrimination rather