Civil Rights Leader Rescued From Obscurity in ‘Freedom’

Why a figure like civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph recedes into obscurity is one of those puzzles historians love to mull over, but Dante J. James’ new biographical film for PBS presses for an answer.

Tracking the course of this activist’s life over 90 minutes, “A. Philip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom” suggests that in the pantheon of black leaders--W.E.B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X--Randolph’s name has been strangely forgotten.

James, with co-writer and journalist Juan Williams, lays out the case for Randolph in the best tradition of Ken Burns style (rare archival footage, softly lit talking heads, dramatic fade-outs). Raised to think for himself, Randolph took his nerve and intelligence from his Southern home to Harlem, where he was drawn in by the political magnetic force known as Eugene V. Debs, America’s most passionate socialist orator at the turn of the century.

With his publication, the Messenger, and his call for black liberation by any means necessary, Randolph predated Malcolm’s and the Black Panthers’ radicalism by 50 years. For him, Washington was too conciliatory, and Garvey was a self-promoting fraud.

Randolph’s eventual success in unionizing the porters on trains owned by the Pullman Co. sent out the message that blacks could organize on their own--a challenge, above all, to the white-controlled trade unions. His gutsy style of brinkmanship was also played out no less than three times in the Oval Office, facing off against presidents Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy. With FDR, his threat of a mass march on Washington won a federal ban on segregation in the defense industries, and later, with Truman, desegregation in the military.

But while colleague James Farmer (a flamboyant subject here for James’ camera) speculates that Randolph bluffed his way to victory, the 1964 march on Washington, which he coordinated with Bayard Rustin, was no bluff. The old socialist-turned-union-reformer saw his dream of a mass political march for social change come true as he introduced King--not knowing of the speech that was to follow.

James’ film ultimately rescues Randolph from obscurity with footage of his speeches and interviews. We can see and hear the patrician-like demeanor and elegant oratorical manner, and it’s clear why he moved presidents.

* “A. Philip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom” airs at 9 tonight on KCET-TV Channel 28.