Labor Day Black History: Honoring A.Philip Randolph And Black Labor Unions

By Cherranda Smith, Black Information Network

The first Monday of September marks the end of summer every year in the US. It’s also the day workers’ rights advocates pushed to formally recognize the achievement and contributions of American laborers. 

The holiday was first celebrated in the early 1880s by individual states before getting its national holiday title in 1894. At the time, Black people in the US were just years separated from slavery, in the throes of the Reconstruction Era, and battling ongoing racial injustice in every aspect of life, especially the labor market. After being enslaved for generations, Black people fought –– and continue the fight –– to earn equal pay, workers’ rights, and more. 

One Black figure leading the way was Asa Philip Randolph who, in 1925, began a decade-long crusade leading the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), one of the nation’s first Black labor unions. The organization brought labor union ideals to thousands of Black households, and in 1935, became the first Black-led labor organization certified by the American Federation of Labor as an exclusive collective bargaining agent.

Learn more about the BSCP and Randolph’s connection to Martin Luther King Jr.

Check out this video about his work.

Civil rights activists and leaders took on more than labor issues.

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