A. Philip Randolph, Pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement

Scholars of the civil rights movement and twentieth-century African American history traditionally refer to Asa Philip Randolph (1889-1979) as the organizer of the first all-black labor union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Paula Pfeffer's aim in this detailed and insightful biography, however, is 'to demonstrate that Randolph's ideologies and strategies provided the blueprint for the civil rights movement that emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s.'