1920's Business and the Economy | "Open Letter to the Pullman Company"

Letter

By: A. Philip Randolph

Date: June 4, 1927

Source: Randolph, A. Philip. "Open Letter to the Pullman Company, June 4, 1927." The Messenger 9, July 1927, 237–41. Reprinted in Foner, Philip S., and Ronald L. Lewis. Black Workers: A Documentary History from Colonial Times to the Present. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989, 392–403. Original letter in the Lowell M. Greenlaw Papers, Chicago Historical Society.

About the Author: Asa Philip Randolph (1889–1979) was born in Crescent City, Florida, and educated at the Cookman Institute, Florida's first high school for African Americans. He moved to New York City in 1911, where he enrolled at City College and became active in socialist politics. Randolph co-founded the radical magazine, The Messenger in 1917. In 1925, Randolph helped to organize the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first...