A. Philip Randolph: “Call to Negro America to March on Washington”

Questions for Further Study

• 1.: What impact did the advent of World War II have on the U.S. economy?
• 2.: What impact, if any, did the labor union movement have on African Americans in the 1930s and early 1940s?
• 3.: Randolph’s march on Washington never took place. Does this mean that his “call” was unsuccessful? Why or why not?
• 4.: Randolph’s article is in no sense a sober, academic-sounding call to the African American community. What rhetorical devices did Randolph use to spur African Americans to action? To what extent do you believe that Randolph’s early career as an actor may have contributed to his writing style?
• 5.: Randolph wrote that “we believe in national unity which recognizes equal opportunity of black and white citizens.” Compare this document with William Pickens’s “The Kind of Democracy the Negro Expects” (1918). To what extent do the two writers make similar arguments, each in the context of world war?