A. Philip Randolph – Founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car porters and visionary director of the March on Washington
“Nothing counts but pressure, pressure, more pressure, and still more pressure through broad organized aggressive mass action.” ~ A. Philip Randolph
“A community is democratic only when the humblest and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social rights that the biggest and most powerful possess.”
~ A. Philip Randolph
“Freedom is never granted; it is won. Justice is never given; it is exacted.”
~ A. Philip Randolph
“Justice is never given; it is exacted and the struggle must be continuous for freedom is never a final fact, but a continuing evolving process to higher and higher levels of human, social, economic, political and religious relationship.” ~ A. Philip Randolph
“Salvation for a race, nation or class must come from within.” ~ A. Philip Randolph
“The essence of trade unionism is social uplift. The labor movement traditionally has been the haven for the dispossessed, the despised, the neglected, the downtrodden, the poor.” ~ A. Philip Randolph
“Let the nation and the world know the meaning of our numbers.” ~ A. Philip Randolph
“At the banquet table of nature, there are no reserved seats. You get what you can take, and you keep what you can hold. If you can’t take anything, you won’t get anything, and if you can’t hold anything, you won’t keep anything. And you can’t take anything without organization.” ~ A. Philip Randolph
“We must develop huge demonstrations, because the world is used to big dramatic affairs. They think in terms of hundreds of thousands and millions and billions . . . Billions of dollars are appropriated at the twinkling of an eye. Nothing little counts.”
~ A. Philip Randolph
“In every truth, the beneficiaries of a system cannot be expected to destroy it.”
~ A. Philip Randolph
“Look for the enemies of Medicare, of higher minimum wages, of Social Security, of federal aid to education and there you will find the enemy of the Negro, the coalition of Dixiecrats and reactionary Republicans that seek to dominate the Congress.” ~ A. Philip Randolph
“Those who deplore our militants, who exhort patience in the name of a false peace, are in fact supporting segregation and exploitation. They would have social peace at the expense of social and racial justice. They are more concerned with easing racial tension than enforcing racial democracy.” ~ A. Philip Randolph