17 Quotes by A. Philip Randolph
A. Philip Randolph was a prominent African American civil rights leader who advocated for economic and political equality for Black Americans. He was instrumental in organizing the 1963 March on Washington, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Randolph founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first African American labor union, and fought for fair treatment and better working conditions for Black workers. He also played a key role in the desegregation of the U.S. military during World War II and worked tirelessly to end discrimination in hiring practices. (Bio)
A. Philip Randolph Quotes
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.
Equality is the heart and essence of democracy, freedom, and justice, equality of opportunity in industry, in labor unions, schools and colleges, government, politics, and before the law. There must be no dual standards of justice, no dual rights, privileges, duties, or responsibilities of citizenship. No dual forms of freedom.
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 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. (Meaning)
Freedom is never given; it is won.
Salvation for a race, nation or class must come from within. Freedom is never granted; it is won. Justice is never given; it is exacted. (Meaning)
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.
It’s easy to get people’s attention, what counts is getting their interest.
The essence of trade unionism is social uplift. The labor movement has been the haven for the dispossessed, the despised, the neglected, the downtrodden, the poor.
Nothing counts but pressure, pressure, more pressure, and still more pressure through broad organized aggressive mass action.
Make wars unprofitable and you make them impossible.
In every truth, the beneficiaries of a system cannot be expected to destroy it.
We want the full works of citizenship with no reservations. We will accept nothing less . . . This condition of freedom, equality, and democracy is not the gift of gods. It is the task of men, yes, men, brave men, honest men, determined men.
Salvation for a race, nation or class must come from within.
Power is the flower of organization.
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.
Winning Democracy for the Negro is winning the war for Democracy
― A. Philip Randolph Quotes
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an impact-driven creator at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 life goals around the globe. Tal's journey and recent book, The Art of Fully Living, inspired him to found Elevate Society.
